Golf is not an exciting sport to watch, but I wonder if that's why it's a good choice for sports movies. Because golf is not greatly cinematic, golf movies must develop strong stories and characters in order to succeed, as they should. There is not so much temptation, as there is with other sports, to dwell overmuch on the spectacle of the game. The Legend of Bagger Vance is only about golf on the surface. At its core, it's about finding, losing, and rediscovering oneself. The problem is that this theme is not exactly unexplored territory; countless films and other works of narrative art have approached this fundamental theme in more compelling ways. Still, there is a lush pleasantness in the tenor and pace of this movie that carries it through the occasionally spotty character development.