Golf is a sport ripe for spoofing, mainly due to its strict social divides exemplified by the country club. No movie understood that better than “Caddyshack” (1980), the gold standard in golf comedies. Screenwriters Fiona Robert and Sophia Robert mine and exaggerate the inherent absurdities at an elite golf institution for their feature comedy “The Country Club” which stars both and is directed by Fiona Robert. It’s no “Caddyshack” of course; what is? But it shows some promise from its creators.
Class lines are drawn immediately in the film’s opening scene as sisters Elsa and Tina Cartwright (played respectively by sisters Sophia and Fiona) are practicing their swings on a course but only until their break is over. Then it’s back to cleaning toilet stalls, managing the front desk, and trying to convince the pro shop manager to sell their sport fashion designs. The sisters live in a modest house in New Haven while they struggle to save for college. A break comes when an invitation arrives at the club, addressed to Elsa Cartwright, to play for prize money in a junior tournament at a swanky Long Island club. The Elsa in question hails from “the Connecticut Cartwrights” but the mistaken identity doesn’t stop Elsa and Tina from hopping on a ferry bound for Long Island.
At the golf tournament they are surrounded by misfits, oddballs and terrible golfers headed by coddled big baby Roger Kowalski (John Higgins). He’s lost without his the attentions and basic care of his caddy, the likable Lumer (Sean Ormond) who is a better golfer than most of the elites and so plays the game for them. Also on hand in the ensemble is Roger’s clueless mother (Elaine Hendrix) who runs the tournament; Margaret Ladd as Granny Lynn, an oldster accompanied by a nurse whose money and status allows her to play with the youngsters; and the hunky Bernard (Akono Dixon) who is Roger’s “rival.”
The jokes are silly and often crass including more than a few about farts, poop and geriatric sex. But the cast looks like they’re having fun and so manages to make the hijinks watchable.
