Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. You know, there's very little better in life than watching a really damn good Robert Redford performance. Back in the day in films like THE STING and BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID he oozed some of the most remarkable charm in film history, maybe even putting himself on the level of a master like Errol Flynn or at least coming as close as one can without the addition of technicolor.
Below we have two reviews of AN UNFINISHED LIFE, starring Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez. Before the negative zone starts to kick into gear, remember back to U-TURN and OUT OF SIGHT. Lopez can pull off a good performance. The first is positive, the second... more lukewarm. There are mild spoilers in both, but this doesn't seem to be a movie hinging on a secret twist or reveal, so you should be alright. Enjoy!
Hey Harry,
I wrote you a short blurb on Marilyn Hotchkiss.......charm school and totally disagree with the review you posted. It is a wonderful film which totally surprised me. A woman's night out film, but with enough guy stuff and laughs for everyone to enjoy. anyways
On Friday night I attended the "world premiere showing" of Lasse Halstrom's An Unfinished Life here at the Edinburgh Film Festival. In attendance was Damien Lewis, who has a supporting role in the movie. This film was a late addition to the festival and was not in any of the catalogues. I happened to be surfing the site looking for an early evening film to view before the Australian hit-man documentary The Magician and I stumble upon An Unfinished Life. When I saw the director and cast list I immediately bought tickets for my girlfriend and myself. Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lopez, Damien Lewis and Josh Lucas. Had to be a good fim.....
We arrived at the Cineworld cinema early to get a good seat and we got in about 30 minutes early....only to be waiting on Damien until 15 minutes after the film was due to start, THEN we had to endure a programme director or something spew shite about the film and "interview" Damien about the film. Damien was up to the job, but if you are going to stand in front of 200 people, have some good questions lined up as Damien looked embarrased to be standing next to her. So We had been sitting for 50+ minutes before the film starting and boy was it good!
The film follows Jean Gilkyson(Jennifer Lopez) and her daughter Griff (newcomer Becca Gardner) as they flee from woman beating nut-job Gary (Brit-doing-americano Damien Lewis). The girls flee to Jean's father-in-law Einar (the great Robert Redford) who lives on a ranch in Wyoming with ranch hand Mitch (MORGAN!!!). The film follows the healing of old wounds between Jean and Einar over a past that she has accepted and he has not. There also involves a superb subplot between a bear and mitch which is the same ideals as the lopez-redford plot.
This film is beautiful. Slow and meandering throughout and gives a colourful small town america with a rustic on the ranch-creaky porch feel. This film is a drama that lets its great slew of actors play with loving characters and pull the audience along on its gentle story. Apart from my sore ass I had a smile on my face throughout.
This, though, is another Morgan Freeman-being-the-conscience for the film. Not a bad thing, but he is given the great subplot of the bear. A year previous to the film's start, Mitch had been mauled by a bear while trying to protect the cattle, and is severely scarred and crippled. Einar provides care for Mitch which is portrayed as a daily ritual which is painful to Mitch but necessary. Matters are made worse for Mitch when the bear who mauled him is caught and placed in an animal place which is more a crappy zoo-sideshow thing. Mitch asks for Einar and Griff to feed the bear, then later to take him to see it. In a final bid for forgiveness he asks Einar to free the bear. This goes against the grain for Einar who wants to kill it for what it did to his friend. I wont say anymore, but this subplot is entertaining and also provides a incase you miss the meaning of the Jean-Einar thing!
The performances throughout are solid. Especially from Jennifer Lopez. Just to be to the point: I think she has been in some awful films. But here, she took a risk, what with working next to redford and freeman, you could look like a right asshole. Needless to say she rose to the challenge and provided a good portrayal as a down-on-her-luck-but-with-pride mother. Robert Redford: awesome. He shows, with ease how to play the gruff old man who is set in his ways and cannot and will not be redeemed, but at the same time a loveable rogue. His bickering with Morgan Freeman was effortless and you would think they really had been friends for decades. Newcomer Becca Gardner plays the daughter and plays it well. She has a independant, almost adult like attitude due to being in a single parent family and having to deal with her mothers string of boyfriends who are assholes. Her relationship with her grandfather is fun to watch as he struggles to accept that he loves her and she struggles for acceptance and a father-like figure.
Damien Lewis plays Gary, the abusive boyfriend who has hit Jenny from the Block one time too many. He is not in the film much, as his character is lurking round the edges, always there keeping a slight level of suspense. I got Mr Lewis to sign my ticket afterwards and he was a gent. He is also TALL! Very charismatic.
Gary still thinks Jean loves him and will return. The showdown between Einar and Gary is a fore-gone conclusion and is a crowd pleaser. I mean who wouldnt want to see Redford kicking ass!
This is a beautiful movie and may not appeal to all, but is definetely worth the money. Though predictable, it is the journey and not the destination that counts here, and along the route we learn important leassons on life from two old Hollywoods legends Redford and Freeman. So those of you who value a good education, dont miss it :-)
Chino
This review is a little more harsh on the film, but the reviewer does compare it (negatively) CHOCOLAT, a movie I seem to be almost alone in really liking. I prefer both WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE and MY LIFE AS A DOG, but there's a warm charm to CHOCOLAT that I really dug. So, maybe I'll tend to lean more towards the above review and less to the one below. Anyway, here's that review!
Hello Harry -
A week ago, I got to see a preview screening of AN UNFINISHED LIFE, the Lasse Hallstrom-directed picture that was one of the movies that have been sitting in The vault there at the Miramax headquarters. It was shot back in 2003, and is only now seeing the light of day as Harvey & Bob dance their way out of the Disney empire. Given that Lasse has been their golden Oscar boy (as Quentin is their golden cool-factor boy), this should sound some alarms. Well, if Disney is looking for a Oscar-caliber movie, this ain't it. It's not all together terrible, just feels like it's a been-there quality.
Hallstrom, despite hailing from Sweden, loves the American small town. Specifically, the small town in the American West, one where people are all down-home, fairly understanding types, the kids are all good if a little misguided, and where lonely, alienated people can finally find some place to call home and a family. When he gets it right, like it "What Eating Gilbert Grape?" and "My Life as a Dog" (yes, I know that took place in Sweeden, but it could have just have been an American small town in the 50s), you have some great films. When it doesn't ("The Shipping News" "Chocolat"), you get well-meaning, but bland and warmed over stuff that usually has one or two excellent performances to overlook the pedestrian qualities of the script. "An Unfinished Life" falls into the latter.
The movie opens with Jean (Jennifer Lopez) getting beat up by her boyfriend, Gary (Damien Lewis), taking her 11-year-old daughter on the run (because, she says, that he'll immediately know to go to the shelter to find her). After the car breaks down, they take a bus to the one bit of family they have left - her former father-in-law Einar (Robert Redford). Seems that when her husband/his son died, Jean went her separate way, mainly because Einar blamed her for the death of his beloved son. Needless to say when she shows up on his farm in Iowa, neither are too happy to see each other, especially when Einar discovers that he has a granddaughter (Becca Gardner) named after his dead son, Griff. Oh, then there's Morgan Freeman as Mitch, the long-time hired hand of Einar who was maimed by a bear a year earlier, and is in constant pain and has a maimed face.
With this set-up, you think you know what's going to happen, and you'd be right. The abusive boyfriend comes back to haunt the family, the grizzy old man Einar gets softened up by the granddaughter, and Mitch faces the bear that maimed him. The last two were done fairly well, not too cloying, considering the obvious direction they are going, but the abusive boyfriend just seemed like a tacked-on bit to create tension, and felt right out of a Lifetime movie.
Performances: Jennifer Lopez is decent. Not great, not "Gigli" terrible. But her role isn't that big, or outstanding. Also, other than a mark under her mouth after the first boyfriend beating that doesn't change for a few days, then disappears quickly, she looks immaculate, despite being beat up, stuck on a bus for hours, and working hard hours in a diner. This is not a new phenominon for JLo, but you'd think with an accomplished director, she'd let him dirty her up a little. Now maybe she just has fabulous genes and she does look like that every morning when she wakes up, but I doubt it.
Morgan Freeman: great as always. But the same kind of role, without the real bite like in "Million Dollar Baby." He doesn't do voice-over here, but he does serve as Mr. Backstory/Exposition.
Robert Redford: quite the surprise here. He's really, really good here as the beaten-down-by-life Einar. After years of roles just being generally bland, he finally shows some emotion and backbone. Not sure if it's Oscar quality, but the sentimental value might get him a nod. Certainly the best I've seen him in years.
Becca Gardner: middle of the road as well (seems like this could be the theme for the entire review, doesn't it?). She handles the big role fairly well, but isn't as outstanding as some other child actors in the past, but is no Jake Lloyd, either.
Other actors come and go without much a ripple. Cameryn Manheim plays a waitress that has a little "lesson learning" exposition for Jean, but has no real purpose otherwise. Josh Lucas plays the sherrif that befriends Einar and later dates Jean, but is mainly there for plot device. Damien Lewis plays the abusive, obsessive boyfriend as an abusive, obsessive boyfriend. And Bart the Bear has a few charming scenes as well, being a bear.
As much as I would've liked to claim the "An Unfinished Life" was An Unfinished Film or An Unfinished Screenplay, I can't make those claims. It's finished, but just too borrowed.
If you use this, call me Cardinal Biggles.
