AND HE'S DRIVING A FAIRWAY TO HEAVEN.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Finally, a movie that explains the passion for golf to the majority of us who just think it's boring.

See, according to ``The Legend of Bagger Vance,'' golf is religion. And not just any religion, but the feel-good parts of most of 'em.

It's definitely a Zen thing, about becoming one with the universe (or in this cosmology, the fairway).

It can be an avenue for Christian redemption and renewal, especially when going into the woods to retrieve an errant ball reminds you of your darkest hour on Earth.

Sand traps? Places of enlightenment, not dissimilar to the deserts where sages, shamans and prophets aplenty have traditionally been struck by Great Truth.

Mostly, though, this vague allegory about playing the inner and outer game speaks to the peculiarly American secular belief in the possibility of winning both spiritual peace and material success. It's also, even more fuzzily, about how the difficulties of racism, war and economics all fall away in the best of all possible heavens - which you'll know when you see it by its 18 exquisitely landscaped holes.

This prettily presented hokum comes to us by way of a guy who's preached this transcendent sports gospel before, director Robert Redford. As an actor, he explored these notions with true grit in ``Downhill Racer'' and fable-like heroism in ``The Natural.'' ``Bagger'' is more like a Sunday sermon before a long-planned church social, designed to impart a few digestible homilies without upsetting the congregants' stomachs.

Trouble is, Redford tries to ground his fantasy's light lessons in serious, real-world turmoil. This does the film's social issues a big disservice and lends its personal epiphanies an air of ivory tower - or, more specifically, country club - triviality.

Bagger Vance is played by Will Smith, but the movie isn't about him, it's about what he can do for rich, troubled white folks. The prime sad case here is the impossibly named Rannulph Junuh, an Edwardian-era golden boy and Savannah, Ga.'s, own homegrown links legend. But then he goes off to World War I and doesn't come back right. Eleven years on, he's still a gin-soaked shell of what he once was.

And so, thanks to the Great Depression, is once-genteel Savannah. Ran's former flame Adele Invergordon (Charlize Theron, making the most of spit curls and Coco Chanel's fashion breakthroughs, if not a Dixie accent) has inherited a state-of-the-art golf destination from her recently selnflicted daddy. On the verge of bankruptcy herself, the headstrong belle dreams up a can't-miss tournament, Bobby Jones vs. Walter Hagen, to bring national attention to her empty resort.

City fathers (who all spout a flowery Rubespeak that screenwriter Jeremy Leven and source novelist Steven Pressfield presume was prevalent in the South some 100 years after it wasn't) insist that a local boy must also play, the city's honor somehow being at stake. First a hero-worshiping kid (the facially overactive J. Michael Moncrief), then a sexually available Adele, try to convince Ran to participate.

But he's lost his swing and is determined to keep it lost. Until, that is, mysterious vagabond Vance comes smiling out of the night, engagingly offering advice on stance, club choice and how Ran can get over his trauma and find his true, personal Ranness all over again.

And, no less important, maybe come from behind and whup the sport's giants.

OK, which is worse? A desegregation-era football film that doesn't use racial epithets but at least acknowledges Southern prejudice or a Depression-era golf movie that dispenses with both the ugly words and almost any evidence of institutionalized discrimination? Well, ``Remember the Titans'' claims to be true and ``Bagger Vance'' at least acknowledges that it's a tall tale. Either way, unpleasant history is shamelessly glossed over in both.

While Smith isn't required to do much but be earthily angelic, Damon gives a reliably solid portrayal of his underimagined character - and yes, his accent I approve of. Ditto Joel Gretsch, whose smooth superman take on the real-life Jones is of true legend quality (Bruce McGill ain't bad as the hedonistic Hagen, either). Jack Lemmon appears in bookending sequences and provides the appropriately elegiac narration, and it's all washed in moody mists and gorgeous natural hues by the brilliant cinematographer Michael Ballhaus.

Those who worship golf will probably get more than these few pleasures out of ``The Legend of Bagger Vance,'' and they are certainly welcome to them. But don't expect the movie to make many converts.

``THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE''

(Rated PG-13: language, sex, violence)

The stars: Matt Damon, Will Smith, Charlize Theron, J. Michael Moncrief, Bruce McGill, Joel Gretsch, Jack Lemmon.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Robert Redford. Written by Jeremy Leven, based on Steven Pressfield's novel. Produced by Redford, Michael Nozik and Jake Eberts. Released by DreamWorks.

Running time: Two hours, seven minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and one half stars.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Will Smith, left, and Matt Damon co-star in ``The Legend of Bagger Vance,'' directed by Robert Redford.