In this 1930s-set sports drama from director Robert Redford, Will Smith plays golfing guru Bagger Vance and transcends his blockbuster image with a performance of real tenderness and integrity. With her late father's resort facing ruin, Adele (Charlize Theron) launches a big-name golf tournament in Savannah. Lining up against golfing legends Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen is local boy Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon), an emotionally scarred First World War veteran. Rannulph has taken to the bottle, and is struggling to regain control of his swing and his life, until caddy Vance provides the healing touch. Tiger Woods might take issue with the idea that "golf is a game that can't be won, only played", but in the context of this old-fashioned tale of love and redemption it rings true.

World War I has left golfer Rannulph Junuh a poker-playing alcoholic, his perfect swing gone. Now, however, he needs to get it back to play in a tournament to save the financially ravaged golf course of a long-ago sweetheart. Help arrives in the form of mysterious caddy Bagger Vance.