You can film a profound documentary about a man finding what makes him happy and pursuing it towards greatness, but throwing in a few philosophical musings about similarities between sports and life and the perfection of both won’t fix the structural issues that keep it from pursuing any one point to a satisfying conclusion. The Back Nine sets out to follow Jon Fitzgerald’s journey from his midlife crisis onward as he decides to pursue his dream of going pro with his golf game, and he uses it as a platform to better himself in a number of ways while balancing it with his increasingly complicated family life. Through all of this he struggles to keep the film festival he helped to found (Slam Dance) on track and resolve his paternal issues (with both his biological father and step-father) – sound like a disconnected documentary? It should, because none of it ever flows together and it feels like pieces of wholly separate films smashed together to make a sentimentally sound but structurally fractured piece of introspection.
In the face of countless naysayers telling him he was too old to start down the path of a professional golfing career, Jon Fitzgerald resolved to pursue a dream he regretted not fulfilling when he was younger. He would face a variety of obstacles, not the least of which was his obligation to his wife and family both in how he spent his time but also in how he spent their money, which became split between household needs and the high premium attached to training, equipment, and travel in a pro golf career. Furthermore, the old adage that golf is a mental sport meant he would have to free himself of the various emotional burdens he carried, including his less-than-perfect relationships with his two fathers, each holding a different place in his life. He worked with coaches to perfect his style, to change his way of thinking, and to bring his performance on the course to a new highpoint.
This skeleton of self-improvement on all fronts in an effort to perfect his game makes sense for a documentary, and The Back Nine does well enough to establish the tasks Jon must tackle in his quest. The balance that begins to shift out of alignment isn’t in how Jon copes with complications at home or conflicts with his work and tour dates, but in how much time the camera devotes to various off-shoots of his objectives. At the film’s two-thirds marker, we get sidetracked as Jon goes off on two separate jaunts with his two father-figures in an effort to get closer and repair any breaches that may have formed over the years. He succeeds, but it comes at the expense of the film’s ability to stay on track and keep things clipping along. A trip to St. Andrews and Scotland to play golf on a historic course and learn of the Fitzgerald heritage is all well and good as a 5-minute interlude, but it stretches on longer than that and feels like another movie altogether.
Jon’s desire to make a film collides with his desire to fix all the faults in his life, even if their connection to his overall goal of going pro isn’t quite clear cut. It meanders off course and it never really gets back until the final five minutes that come as more of an afterthought of “Oh yeah, and here’s what I accomplished once I got back from my vacations.” His goals are admirable, his skills assured, and himself entirely likable, but Jon Fitzgerald’s attempts to compress more than just those things into the film is what ultimately drives it into an incoherent mess. It’s easy enough to watch but at various points throughout you can’t help but feel the film’s focus switch without warning or justification.
DVD Bonus Features
Interviews with Jon, his mental trainer Joseph Parent, and his life-coach of sorts Katherine Roberts are the first stops in the extras – and Jon’s is interesting while the other two are somewhat inane, self-indulgent chatter about the “methods” of each. Finally, Jon gives some golf tips and then provides an audio commentary for the film along with his co-director Ron Vignone.
"The Back Nine" is on sale December 14, 2010 and is not rated. Documentary. Directed by Ron Vignone. Written by Jon Fitzgerald, Ron Vignone. Starring Jon Fitzgerald.
