Un golpe de éxito

Although not his biggest commercial success, ‘Dead Solid Perfect' may be the funniest book written by one of this country's great talents, Dan Jenkins.

In the text, there is a combination of comedic genius, and a true love for the subject matter, the game of golf. Add 50 some years of experience reporting on the game, and Mr. Jenkins has just about every aspect of this story nailed, cold.

I know many who think one of his earlier books, Semi-Tough to be an exemplary piece of writing, I agree, but the film it produced turned out luke-warm as best.

This film is better, although it can not be described with the superlatives of Jenkins original. Sometimes it's just impossible to capture the essence of such multi-layered characters on film in 2 hours or less.

Not to knock Bobby Roth, or the two principals, Randy Quaid, and Jack Warden who both did good turns: Quaid as Kenny Lee, the talented but struggling tour golfer and Warden as `Bad-Hair' Wimberly, the cash-rich sponsor. The film stumbles and rumbles to a storybook conclusion.

For golf fans it's a good movie and certainly more honest and original than Tin Cup. For the rest I'd say only fair.