obsession boyfriend i'm psyched     i'm dreading enemy

(need an explanation?)

advertisements


An Unfinished Life (review)

It's sort of obvious in that Robert Redford-y way we've come to know of late: the rugged, wounded, horse-whispering nonsmoking Marlboro Man coming to terms with Life, the Universe, and Everything, particularly his own cantankerousness. But obviousness be damned. The insights into the kind of caged personal hells too many of us live in many not be entirely original, but the journey out of that hell is a warm, comfortable, homey one -- this is a movie to curl up with on a chilly winter's night; this is the movie equivalent of a mug of hot cocoa. (It's even got marshmallows on top: Josh Lucas [Stealth] as a small-town sheriff, all deliciously scruffy and uniformed.) Redford's (The Clearing) Iowa rancher starts out the film saddled with a crippled ranchhand (Morgan Freeman: Unleashed) he tends with a masculine gruffness, an estranged daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez: Monster-in-Law) he hates with an inexplicable passion, an 11-year-old granddaughter (Becca Gardner) he never knew he had and doesn't know how to deal with, and a chip on his shoulder the size of his beatup pickup truck. He will not end the movie a total softie, of course, but damn close. The sledgehammer director Lasse Hallströaut;m (The Shipping News) sometimes wields makes no appearance here; instead, he finds redemption for pain in the minutiae of life: in the grudging allowance to the farm cats their taste of still-warm-from-the-cow milk every morning, in the making of a sandwich on mushy white bread; he finds the love in the bickering and the sniping that occupies this thrown-together family.


more below the ad... scroll down...


viewed at a private screening with an audience of critics
rated PG-13 for some violence including domestic abuse, and language
official site | IMDB

Bookmark and Share

who I am


I'm MaryAnn Johanson: writer and ponderer in New York City who drinks too much wine and thinks way too much about such inconsequences as movies, TV, books, and the meaning of life.
[email me]

• contributor, Film.com
• member, Online Film Critics Society
• member, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
• member, International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences
• visit my scratchpad blog, MaryAnnJohanson.com
• read my Doctor Who fan fiction

photo by David Speranza

(postings feed)

Add to Technorati Favorites

monthly archives

recent screenings and hot movies

just opened
green for go The Dark Knight
yellow for maybe Mamma Mia!
red for no Space Chimps
yellow for maybe Felon
box office top 5
yellow for maybe Hellboy II: The Golden Army
green for go Hancock
yellow for maybe Journey to the Center of the Earth
green for go Wall-E
green for go Wanted
top limited releases
green for go Mongol
green for go The Visitor
Tell No One
yellow for maybe The Wackness
Brick Lane
coming soon
green for go Step Brothers
green for go American Teen
green for go The Perfect Game
green for go Bottle Shock
green for go Boy A
green for go Man on Wire
red for no Fly Me to the Moon
yellow for maybe A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
now playing
red for no Meet Dave
yellow for maybe Death Defying Acts
yellow for maybe August
red for no Harold
yellow for maybe Up the Yangtze
yellow for maybe Get Smart
green for go Kung Fu Panda
green for go Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
green for go The Incredible Hulk
yellow for maybe Diminished Capacity
red for no The Love Guru
red for no The Happening
yellow for maybe You Don't Mess With the Zohan
green for go Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
green for go The Fall
green for go Young@Heart
yellow for maybe Quid Pro Quo
red for no Sex and the City: The Movie
red for no The Strangers
green for go Dreams With Sharp Teeth
green for go Iron Man
green for go The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

2008 screening log

new on dvd

07.15
green for go The Bank Job [buy]
yellow for maybe Penelope [buy]
green for go Beau Brummell: This Charming Man [buy]
green for go Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain [buy]
green for go Times & Winds [buy]
green for go Eureka: Season Two [buy]
green for go Saving Grace: Season One [buy]
07.08
green for go Stop-Loss [buy]
green for go Chop Shop [buy]
yellow for maybe Sleepwalking [buy]
green for go X-Files: Revelations [buy]
green for go Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Fourth Season [buy]
green for go Stargate Atlantis Seasons 1-4 [buy]
07.01
yellow for maybe Vantage Point [buy]
yellow for maybe City of Men [buy]
red for no Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns [buy]
green for go Mad Men: Season One [buy]
green for go Anglo Saxon Attitudes [buy]
green for go Heathers - 20th High School Reunion Edition [buy]

advertisements

search

Google
flickfilosopher.com
web
Powered by
Movable Type 3.36