An Unfinished Life

An Unfinished Life (Director: Lasse Hallstrom)

The Swedish Hallstrom came onto the American scene with 1993's great What's Eating Gilbert Grape? but has since made movies that are questionable at best--Something to Talk About, The Cider House Rules, Chocolat, and The Shipping News. No man's movies in the past 10 years have been over-rewarded than his. Oscar shockingly gave Cider House 6 nominations (including Best Picture, and 2 wins) and Chocolat 5 (also including Best Picture). An Unfinished Life is a movie that has been done since 2003; it's getting the Miramax clearing-house release date this weekend.

Hallstrom likes the small-town milieu, the fact that important human drama happens in places other than the big city. He looked to have a sure-thing here with Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman in full-on Oscar-bait, and a marketable star in Jennifer Lopez (this film was probably done during the height of her romance with Ben Affleck; perhaps you read about that in a couple of papers). But what is done here is a movie completely devoid of a center--he tries for that old Gilbert Grape? magic, that slice-of-life type of thing that he's been trying to recreate ever since, and it collapses due to the fact that there's no sound foundation.

Jean Gilkyson (Lopez) is a battered woman with 11-year-old daughter Griff (Becca Gardner) seeking shelter from her asshole boyfriend Gary (Damian Jones, in a year that might have looked like a 1-2 punch with Dreamcatcher, also starring Morgan Freeman). She asks for the help of her father-in-law Einar (Redford), who blames her for killing his son in an auto accident. Einar agrees, slightly intrigued by the fact that he has a granddaughter he didn't know about. Einar has been keeping busy on his ranch with his long-time friend Mitch (Freeman), a man who got mauled by a bear and spends most of his life taking medicine via the butt cheeks--something Einar blames himself for.

So you've got all this blame and all these situations are derived in order to get Einar to come out of his shell. There's a subplot involving the bear, how there's a decision to keep it caged or let it roam free--you know where it's going. There's also the matter of Jean's taking an interest in the local sheriff Crane Curtis (Josh Lucas), and how her ex-boyfriend has shown up in town to take back what's his. And of course, how Einar's relationship with his granddaughter opens up more doors. It's one of those kinds of movies. I will say that Redford and Freeman are there usual good selves, although the friendship is eerily similar to last year's Million Dollar Baby, substituting Eastwood for Redford.

The then-13-year-old Gardner is also good--imagine your first movie seeming like it's going to be a big deal: You got Hallstrom directing, you're working with Redford, Freeman, and diva Lopez, you've got Miramax behind it...you'd think you've won the lottery. And of course, that now probably seems like, to Gardner, that the lottery is taking their money back. It's probably a huge relief that the movie is finally coming out--but not with the fanfare that it probably could have had. I'll also say this: Jennifer Lopez, if she hasn't already, has become a too-distracting presence in films. Due to the high media exposure, her performances always seem out-of-place. She's all right in this, it just doesn't seem right.

Anyway, it's not terrible. It just leaves you unsatisfied.