Ever since the
death of her husband Jean Gilkyson (Jennifer Lopez)
has dealt with some pretty hard knocks in her life – thanks to one too many
wrong choices. Following her husband’s tragic death, Jean walked away from any
ties with family and has been raising her young daughter (Becca Gardner) on her
own. Fleeing from an abusive relationship, Jean knows she cannot run forever so
with funds running low, she winds up at her father-in-law’s doorstep, hoping
he’ll be willing to take them in. Einar (Robert Redford) hasn’t ever come to
terms with the death of his son… or the one person he holds responsible for his
death: his elusive daughter-in-law. What she has kept from him all those years
is unforgivable.
Time
passes and the three of them somehow cohabitate with Einar constantly griping
at his granddaughter and the inconvenience she is and neither adult has
anything nice to say about the other while Einar devotes much of his time
taking care of his ranch foreman (Morgan Freeman) who, a year ago was mauled by
a bear, and badly injured in the attack. Re-building her life turns out to be
more difficult than Jean thought. While trying to keep to a new lifestyle and
learning to make choices that are best for her young daughter, Jean meets the
local sheriff, Crane Curtis (Josh Lucas) who complicates her new lease on life.
But bigger problems soon arrive when Jean’s leaving didn’t sit too well with
her ex, and before long Gary (Damian Lewis) drives into town.
It’s
too bad that this movie is peppered with some foul language because otherwise
its one of the more touching I’ve seen in a while. It isn’t often that
something promotes healing and forgiveness in such a poised way. Does that mean
that what the script says is ultimately right? No, not necessarily but it does provide
an excellent starting point, and that is something.
The fact that all the characters are carrying around burdens is actually a good
thing for the story to better be able to impart the meaning it needs to be a
truly great story. Is this destined to be a classic? No, but then its
heart-tugging story doesn’t need that illustrious title to be well-thought out and
plotted. And the movie does elicit emotion.
Jean
has been living from one relationship to the next with nary a thought to her
daughter and that has been difficult on both. Most important it hasn’t been a
stable living environment for her young daughter and that has left both with
some emotional scars. Eventually (we’d be disappointed if this weren’t the
case!), everyone comes together to make a better future for themselves and Jean
realizes her selfish motivations are damaging and unhealthy. But that moment all comes down to a
tense situation involving her ex and father-in-law.
In
the director’s chair is Lasse Hollstrom who is more famously known for Cider House Rules (a film my mother
detests and I have no plan to see). He has also been behind the camera for Chocolat which happens to be one of my
favorite “artsy” films. This director has a kind of quiet, less-hurried way of
telling his stories and that alone makes him a visionary who weaves deeper
elements into his works. This movie is very
different in terms of scripting but yet so much the same in camerawork and
reflective moods. He gets the most out of every angle of filmmaking, although
there is some genuine talent in front of the camera too. The veteran actors
turn in top-notch performances as does Lopez but the youngster Becca Gardner
gives a truly touching performance. (Hopefully, she’ll appear in something
equally as compelling one of these days.) Everyone who had a part in making the
movie brought to the screen a stirring story – it might be easily forgotten
because of the slow pace that it unfolds, but then, you aren’t looking past
that to the thought-provoking questions it leaves.
(Rated PG13:
The F-word is used before hardly fifteen minutes have passed, which in turn
opens the script for several other crudities [sh*t] and numerous abuse of deity
[GD]. There is implied pre-marital sex between a couple; one man makes a
comment about oral sex and there are mild references to homosexuality.)
Hm, it may be touching but sadly, I think I shall avoid this one.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually one of the more... "human" movies I've seen. It is a re-latable picture of humanity and forgiveness BUT yeah, the profanity makes it less than stellar. :-/
ReplyDelete