Seven Days in Utopia (2011)

After a disastrous debut on the pro circuit, a young golfer finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas and welcomed by an eccentric rancher.

Director:

Matt Russell

Writers:

David Cook (screenplay), Rob Levine (screenplay),

Stars:

Kathy Baker, Lucas Black, Robert Duvall

5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Kathy Baker	...	Mabel
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Bear	...	Chuck
Lucas Black	...	Luke Chisholm
Dora Madison Burge	...	Hannah chisolm (as Madison Burge)
Brady Coleman	...	Patron
Kim de Patri	...	Golfer
Richard Dillard	...	Golfer #1
Robert Duvall	...	Johnny Crawford
Jerry Ferrara	...	Joe Buckner
Brian Geraghty	...	Jake
Sarah Jayne Jensen	...	Maggie Swanson
Melissa Leo	...	Lily
Josh Painting	...	Duane
Ezra Proch	...	Young Luke Chisolm
Destiny Soria	...	Golf Fan

Storyline

After a disastrous debut on the pro circuit, a young golfer finds himself unexpectedly stranded in Utopia, Texas and welcomed by an eccentric rancher.

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Plot Keywords:

golfer | ranch | place name in title | golf movie | golf | 

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Taglines:

Life is never the same once you've been to Utopia.

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Genres:

Drama | Sport

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 September 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Utopia - O Caminho Para a Vitória

Filming Locations:

Fredericksburg, Texas, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Prospect Park, Utopia Pictures

Technical Specs

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Seven Days in Utopia" is the third film credit which Robert Duvall and Lucas Black share. In addition to the 1996 film "Sling Blade" in which they shared no screen time, they appeared in the 2009 film "Get Low" which also starred Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek.

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Goofs

The morning after a torrential rain near the end of the film, Luke is instructed to bury a box in a small hole dug into the earth. The dirt - whether recently dug or not - would have shown some moisture retained from the storm and would not have been the fine dusty powdered dirt in this scene following that size of a thunderstorm. The hole, too, would have shown some moisture absorbed into the earth.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Johnny Crawford: How can a game have such an effect on a man's soul? The way I see it, how can it not? You don't chose the game, it choses you. And when it does, life and golf become forever connected. That's how it was for a young man named Luke Chisholm.

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #18.110 (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Eyes On You"
Written by Mark Anthony Yaeger, Christopher Carmichael, Tommy Coster, Klaus Badelt, Daniel Rojas and Jacqueline Becker
Performed by 'Jacqueline Becker', Daniel Rojas, Christopher Carmichael and Vinnie Colaiuta

User Reviews

A Golf Story, Sort of

Pro golfer Luke Chisholm (Black) self- destructs on the last hole of a tournament and takes off in his car. He sees a fork in the road and takes the road to Utopia, a Texas town. After crashing into a fence he is met by Johnny Crawford (Duvall) a rancher and once a pro golfer back in the day. Johnny sees an opportunity to help the young pro and he gives Luke a proposition.

This started out like a pretty good golf story, but there were problems with the acting and pacing all around. I wasn't convinced about anything because I had the feeling none of the actors were convinced either. Oh, they went thru the motions, but you could tell there was something missing: belief in what they were saying.

Duvall pontificates throughout this and that's okay up to a point, but I had the feeling he knew he had to say the lines, but again, there was something missing: conviction. He said his lines like he was on roller skates. It was like we really didn't get into the story but here come the lines anyway. Something was missing: conviction. Maybe it was too much pontification. The scenes and dialogues felt rushed, and there was too much hesitation when other actors said their lines. Again, no conviction. Perhaps there was too much material to cover to allow a scene to develop so it became comfortable, likable and convincing.

The last quarter of the movie became a religious quest and it became a little too much. The director should have checked with Kirk Cameron (child star on Growing Pains TV show) who stars in many of these types of religious themed movies. Actually, I felt blind-sided. For most of the movie, it was about golf training, such as it was, then we get hit with a pretty heavy religious aspect the rest of the way. And, here we find conviction in Johnny's dialogue. Took long enough to find it. Where was it before?

Of course, Luke manages to learn the lessons Johnny gave him and when he has a putt on the last hole of the Texas Open to win the tournament, the movie stops in mid-putt and we get hit with: go to http://www.didhemaketheputt.com.

OK, I bit and went there and I have no idea if he made the putt, but that wasn't the point of the movie, now was it? And, when I went there, I was hit with more religious material.

Had I known about all the religious stuff in the beginning, this probably wouldn't have bothered me. Hey, I have watched some Kirk Cameron movies and they are good. But, here, I felt I was blind-sided. After all this was not anything like The Greatest Game Ever Played or a Bobby Jones story. (5/10) Violence: Not really. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Soft stuff only and not much of it.