Tommy's Honour, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Film Festival

"Your station in life was set before you were born."

A film based on the real world story of golf's first superstar, Young Tom Morris, who remains the youngest ever winner of a major golf championship, at just 17, and who won the Open four times consecutively.  He was an innovator in the techniques of the game, pioneering club choices that were unconventional for the time and introducing backspin to his shots.  All of this is faithfully reflected on screen, with careful attention to period detail and many little golf-related jokes along the way.  The crowds following the matches are an entertainment in themselves, with drunken rowdiness and gambling descending into violence at times.

But the real meat of the tale lies in Tom's personal relationships, and his attitude to the society he played out his tragically short life in.  His father, Old Tom, was the professional at Saint Andrews, and passionate about maintaining the traditions of the sport.  When his son first exceeds his father's skills, and then becomes determined to gain greater financial benefits from his talent than the older man had ever conceived, their relationship becomes fragile.  The young man can see that others - "gentlemen" - are making far more in wagers than he does as a player and  determines to change the situation, rightly feeling that these rich men do nothing but feed, carrion like, off the back of his abilities.

This brings him into conflict with the established order, and it is the Saint Andrews club captain, played in oleaginous manner by Sam Neill, who smugly delivers my opening quote to Morris.  But the latter knows his own worth to these men, and becomes the forerunner of the professional sports stars of today.

He also challenges convention in his choice of wife, falling in love with an older woman of lower social status, and this too will bring him into conflict with his family and society.  Aspects of the relationship do come across as overwrought, but there is also genuine emotion to be had.

Peter Mullan is his predictably excellent self as Old Tom, while Jack Lowden carefully treads the line between brashness and vulnerability to keep the audience always wanting Young Tom to prevail.  Although, inevitably given the subject and period, the women are much in the background, for me the best performance in the film comes from Ophelia Lovibond as Young Tom's wife, Meg.  She's sassy, cautious, sensible and fun, while Therese Bradley as mother Nancy is a solid presence, a woman of convention who finds a way to admit her mistake.

The greatest strength of this movie is in portraying the snobbery, greed, hubris and inhumanity of the upper class, the self styled "gentlemen", and the courage of Young Tom in kicking against the door being held shut against him on account of his origins.  Thank goodness the world has moved on since Victorian times - although recent events at Muirfield suggest there are elements of the golf world that still have some catching up to do.....

Tommy's Honour should never be dismissed as yet another sports movie.  There's more substance to it than that, and many of the social conflicts it portrays still have validity a century and half later.  Definitely one to see.