![]() The bear, a grizzly named Bart - he's in the movie so much we may as well give him credit - serves as heavy-handed metaphor for a number of things. Hallstrom, however, goes to the bear early and often. "A granddaughter - that's a nice thing for a man to have," Mitch offers from his sick bed, where he spends most of his time, high on morphine, years after a bear mauling.Īh yes, the bear. (The son's tombstone literally includes the words "an unfinished life.") He also doesn't approve of needy Jean falling quickly into a relationship with the hunky young sheriff (Josh Lucas), whom Griff immediately mistrusts in a rare moment of emotional honesty.īut you know that in time, Einar's tough-guy stance will soften, especially with some tough-love prodding from his old buddy, Mitch. ![]() Jean and Gardner's character, Griff (named for the father she never got to meet) show up at Einar's ranch from Iowa after one beating too many from Jean's hard-drinking, chain-smoking boyfriend, Gary (Damian Lewis).Įinar doesn't exactly welcome them with open arms he has long blamed Jean for her son's death, because she was driving during the car accident that killed him. She also recalls a young Hilary Swank, a similarity that's especially hard to ignore during her many scenes with Freeman, Swank's "Million Dollar Baby" co-star. In her first major film role, she radiates tomboyish confidence and charm, and she holds her own with the heavyweights. ![]() Playing her 11-year-old daughter, though, Becca Gardner is a total natural and a real find. (Hallstrom doesn't help her in the gravitas department by shooting her in the warmest, most flattering light at all times.) But she can't hide from the fact that she's Jennifer Lopez, regardless of the role whether doing yoga in "Gigli," cleaning hotel rooms in "Maid in Manhattan" or wearing a bruise on her cheek here (along with a sporadic Southern accent), she always looks ready for a music video shoot. Then there's Lopez as Jean Gilkyson - Einar's estranged daughter-in-law and the widow of his deceased son - who's now on the run from an abusive boyfriend. Just seeing these veterans (who also both appeared in "Brubaker") share the screen is a joy, and the roles written by husband and wife Mark Spragg and Virginia Korus Spragg fit them like a comfy old pair of jeans. ![]() "An Unfinished Life" too often feels self-conscious and calculated, despite the humor that springs from the cranky banter between Redford and Freeman's characters, Einar Gilkyson and Mitch Bradley, friends who've worked on the same Wyoming ranch for 40 years. (Even the poster is nearly identical to that of Hallstrom's "The Shipping News," another Miramax release about disparate figures coping with each other and nature, out in the middle of nowhere. It's just one more drama from the Miramax annals - like Hallstrom's "Chocolat" and "The Cider House Rules" - that creates the illusion of importance, of cultural significance, while delivering little in terms of lasting substance. You have the A-list cast (Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and - OK, we'll give her the title, too - Jennifer Lopez) the Oscar-nominated director (Lasse Hallstrom) the sprawling vistas of rural grandeur, all awash in glorious golden light.īut something feels unfinished about the film its dysfunctional family goes through the motions of anger, reconciliation, forgiveness and renewal, but the emotional impact just isn't there. ”That will be my teaser.All the pieces seem to be there in "An Unfinished Life." ”There must have been some pressure, but I think we all enjoyed the hiding spot we had in Canada.” Hallström promises a ”slightly different Redford” than audiences are accustomed to. ”She seemed absolutely cool about ongoing debacles,” the director reports. Hallström actually shot his reported $30 million film in northern Canada, just as Lopez’s personal life was imploding last year. Nevertheless, the American West, not New York, is the backdrop of ”Life,” which tells the story of a rancher (Robert Redford) who must come to terms with his son’s death after his troubled daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez) arrives with a little girl who happens to be his grandchild (Becca Gardner). ”I would really prefer to shoot in New York, because that’s where I live,” chuckles the Swedish transplant. An uplifting melodrama, shot in an exotic locale, just in time for Oscar season? Yep, it’s Lasse Hallström, director of ”Chocolat” and ”The Shipping News” - although the gentle helmer waves away any suggestion of a movie formula.
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