His unorthodox ways of improving Luke's golf game – having him paint pictures, sending him up in a prop plane and cutting the engine – are, as Johnny is the first to admit, really about life improvement. Johnny is a familiar rural archetype – the old coot as sage. Utopia, with its big blue skies and peachy-keen people, may not rank right up there with Shangri-La, but it's close enough. It's a lot more cornball – i.e., enjoyable – than "The Tree of Life," which tried for some of the same things. If you think about it too long you'll collapse in giggles or groans, but it's expertly touchy-feely, and it does get to you in the end. The movie does pretty much the same thing. He trusts feelings, not thinking, preaching the doctrine of SFT – "see it, feel it, trust it." Johnny ruined his career and his marriage with drink, but he's risen above all that. An ex-golfer with his own private course, Johnny spends a week imparting life lessons before sending Luke back into the world a wiser fellow. There he is taken under the wing of the kindly, avuncular Johnny, played by Robert Duvall, who can do this stuff in his sleep but, fortunately, doesn't. When, playing miserably, Luke has a meltdown during a tournament, he flees in his car and ends up stranded in the tiny township of Utopia, pop. Luke Chisholm ( Lucas Black) is a top-notch Texas golfer whose martinet father ( Joseph Lyle Taylor) pushes him to the brink. "Seven Days in Utopia," of course, like most sports movies with higher aspirations, tries to position itself as more than a sports movie. I've never understood what exactly is so spiritual about whacking a golf ball, but then again I'm no golfer, unless it's the miniaturized variety. I used to think baseball was the sport that people got all mystical-moony over, but now I'm not so sure. " Seven Days in Utopia" is based on the 2009 David Cook inspirational bestseller that carries the more imposing title "Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia." If you thought the golf movie " The Legend of Bagger Vance" was a great big heap of hoo-ha, you ain't seen nothing yet.
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