During the holidays is always a great time to take the family to a movie. This one is about golf and is directed by Robert Redford.

AP Movie Writer - Robert Redford's golfing fairy tale, "The Legend of Bagger Vance,'' is classy, dignified, eminently big-hearted. It's also simple-minded to the point of banality.

Even so, it's hard to resist falling in step with the on-screen onlookers who crowd the links to follow a washed-up golfer as he tries to exorcise his demons and reclaim the promise his life once held.

Director Redford's characters and Depression-era Southern settings are so richly and lovingly crafted that they largely compensate for the movie's New Age motivational babble and the shallow artifice of its story.

Matt Damon stars as Rannulph Junuh, the coulda-been pro golfer who entire company is killed, Rannulph vanishes for 10 years, leaving behind his golf career and fiancee Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron).

Conveniently, he returns home just as Adele is looking for ways to hang on to the lavish golf resort her father opened as the Depression hit. Adele convinces two top golfers (Bruce McGill and Joel Gretsch) to compete at her place, but the city fathers insist that a local boy must join the big golfing exhibition.

And so begins Rannulph's resurrection under the tutelage of a mysterious caddy named Bagger Vance (Will Smith), who appears out of the night to spout Zen pat-phrases intended to put the zing back in Rannulph's swing -- and his life.

"Inside each and every one of us is one true, authentic swing, something we're born with,'' Bagger says. He goes on to describe a golf course as a living thing on its own, asserts that Rannulph cannot make the ball go in the hole but has to let it, and tells his charge that it's time he learned to "see the field.'' The pop-philosophy pep talk grows wearisome, but at least Bagger never tells Rannulph to "be the ball.'' Early on, "Bagger Vance'' feels choppy and truncated as Redford hurries through the preliminaries. There's barely time for the audience to digest Rannulph's wartime horrors before being thrust into Redford's metaphoric tale of redemption and reclamation.

The movie then settles into a languid, easygoing Southern pace. The story unfolds through the eyes of young Hardy Greaves (newcomer J. Michael Moncrief), a boy who signs on as Rannulph's deputy caddy and whose life becomes indelibly imprinted by the hopefulness Bagger preaches.

Jack Lemmon delivers an engaging cameo as the elderly Hardy and provides genteel voice-overs that nudge the story along.

The cast is fine; it's hard to say more, since the straightforward script provides little room for range. Smith, though, is noteworthy for the quiet charm and humour he brings to Bagger.

The plot itself is something you've seen many times before, including Redford's own redemptive journey in "The Natural.'' That movie, however, was rooted in a more seamy, realistic world, where forces operate against the resurgent hero, hoping to benefit from his failure.

Continued on page 31 Begger Vance Continued from page 15 "Bagger Vance,'' on the other hand, is goodness and mercy incarnate. It's tempting to characterise "Bagger Vance'' as a throwback to a simpler era of movie making, but Hollywood has rarely been this simple, this benign.

No villains, just a man and his own phantoms, surrounded by a decent lot of folks -- friends, strangers, even competitors -- cheering him on. It's a metaphor we'd all like to live.

"The Legend of Bagger Vance,'' from DreamWorks Pictures, runs 127 minutes and is rated PG-13 for some sexual content.

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions: G -- General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG -- Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 -- Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13.

Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R -- Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 -- No one under 17 admitted.