TIN CUP -- by naudy

Having satelite television in the home is a huge problem, mainly because I sit and watch it. I had a billion things I planned to do yesterday: sew some pants, write/practice music, clean the kitchen, clean my room, prepare lunch for tomorrow, return a video, and, above all, get to bed early so I wouldn't be late for work -- again.

I was late to work the next day. It was all because when I got home I saw that TNT was showing TIN CUP. I sat there like a steer hit by a bolt gun and watched the entire movie. Now, it's not like I'd never seen it. No, I think I'v seen this movie about 7 times. It was a college favorite. It was one of those "Wow-I-don't-have-any-homework-I-have-to-do-so-let's-rent-a-movie" movies. Watching it I remembered why.

Strangely, I don't much like Kevin Costner. FIELD OF DREAMS is okay. BULL DURHAM makes me cringe. DANCES WITH WOLVES was such a trial that even thinking about it makes me want to get up and run away. All his other movies leave me cold, too. I just can't seem to get that involved with worn-out baseball players, vigilante mailmen, or guys with gills. (Though I did enjoy WATERWORLD the first time I saw it. It was just so strange, so desperate to be a salty MAD MAX. The charm quickly wore off.) So, what is it about TIN CUP that I have to cancel all my plans and be terribly unproductive? In a word -- home.

Yup, that's right. Home. Kevin Costner, to me, represents in his character Roy "Tin Cup" McAvoy, all that I love about the folks in Texas. Yeah he's a complete looser who has never bothered to live up to his amazing potential. Sure he works at a dusty dried-up driving range in Salome, TX which is owned by his stripper ex-girlfriend 'cause he lost it to her on a dog race bet. What's wrong with living in a Winnebago, drinking beer for breakfast, or insisting on eating at Waffle House no matter where you are? When you put your foot in your mouth and create an unbelieveably akward moment do you then suggest that she kiss you? That's a problem? So what? You've got your buddies who love ya and tease ya and back you up no matter what. Did you just loose your convertable 1978 red Cadillac to your best-college-buddy/arch-nemisis in a stupid bet? Well, okay. Your real friends will chug their beer, slap you on the back and say "Your'e the man, Cup!... A man who needs a ride home!" and that's that. When the pretty doctor-lady you're courtin' is dating the afore-mentioned arch-nemisis, all of your friends will tell her it's a well-known fact that her boyfriend is mean to old people and kids and dogs, in the same matter-of-fact way they'd tell you the beer's cold or your fly is open. It's the casual/deep relationships these people have. Even the guy you love to hate, the sucessful conservative guy you call a soulless robot and who your friends point out is a rich, happy, soulless robot, has feelings. He loves and hates you, too, the same as you. And all of it is said between stupid jokes and cracking open cans and long stretches of contented silence.

That's why I love this movie. It's got characters I love acting in a way that feels right. Towards the end, when all of Tin Cup's buddies drive to North Carolina to see him play at the U.S. Open, and you see eight people all sleeping in a Winnebago, Costner leans over to Renee Russo and says "It won't always be like this, us laying here next to my stripper ex-girlfriend, with my caddy sleeping next to her on the floor. Someday it'll be nice." Russo says back to him, "No, it's always going to be like this -- always." as she looks fondly on the guy who's asleep in his sunglasses and cowboy hat (which he never takes of the entire movie) and the fat guy who's always wearing a TCU t-shirt, and all the rest of the pack draped over and under the tight confines of a Winnebago. That sense of family, of tribe, of casual attitudes and deep love is exactly the way home feels, and that's why I'll be stuck watching this movie every single time it's on.