#Movie review an unfinished life movie#
#Movie review an unfinished life full#

While he nails several scenes (the reveal of Lopez's battered face in the opening moments is subtle but quite shocking) and nicely underplays some important incidentals (Redford's bad history with booze), most of the time he's just too obvious, as when Redford visits his son's grave (on a hill overlooking the ranch) several times to fill in plot details with rhetorical exposition. Hallstrom's atmospheric but spongy direction also does the film a disservice. But Lopez - who hasn't given a performance that popped off the screen since Steven Soderbergh's 'Out of Sight' - isn't equal to the task. Cate Blanchett or Sandra Bullock would have been spectacular in the role. The part calls for an actress who could, without losing audience sympathy, play the selfish insensitivity of hopping into bed with the sheriff right under the nose of her dead husband's still broken-hearted father who has just given her a safe haven when she had nowhere else to go. Her underwritten character - largely a catalyst for change in others - needed an actress who could bring vividly to life her unexplored emotional history and give texture to her vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, Lopez proves to be the movie's weak link. 'How do you want her to remember you?' he scolds Redford for not making friends with his granddaughter.

Cared for by Redford ever since, they share an amusingly contentious friendship, but Freeman is mostly around to act as an advice-giving sage. He's matched by Morgan Freeman, playing a ranch hand who endures the deep, debilitating scars of having once been mauled by the aforementioned bear.

#Movie review an unfinished life full#

Redford gives a wonderful, warmly gruff performance full of personality (he mumbles to himself habitually), pent-up resentment, and sublimated soul. But structurally it's so lacking in imagination (suppose Lopez will fall for the handsome, strong but non-threatening sheriff played by Josh Lucas?) that the story arc seems to have been drawn on graph paper rather than written in a script.Įven the characters seem to understand their lives are on a three-act schedule: When Lopez's violent ex-boyfriend (Damian Lewis) inevitably arrives on the scene late in the film (after being run out of town once already by Redford), his presence is briefly acknowledged (he threatens Lopez), then completely ignored (despite the earlier encounter, she doesn't tell anyone) until it's expedient to the plot. Still bitterly nursing the loss of his son some 11 years ago in a car accident for which Einer (Redford) blames Jean (Lopez), the unfriendly ol' cuss becomes even more surly when introduced to Griff (Becca Gardner), an attentive, 11-year-old tomboy granddaughter he never knew he had.Įmotionally credible and transportingly photographed, it's a film that wears its out-sized metaphors well (Redford and the girl bond over freeing a recently captured bear he'd previously tried to kill). Lopez lacks depth as abused mother seeking help from estranged father-in-law in over-plotted melodramaĪnother sleepy, sweeping soft-serve melodrama from director Lasse Hallstrom ( 'The Shipping News,' 'Chocolat,' 'Cider House Rules'), 'An Unfinished Life' stars Robert Redford as a grizzly Wyoming rancher who resentfully takes in his long-estranged, widowed daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez) when she reluctantly turns up seeking shelter from an abusive boyfriend. Starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman, Becca Gardner, Josh Lucas, Camryn Manheim SPLICEDwire content is available for print, web, radio & PDA starting at just $99/month!

#Movie review an unfinished life movie#

SPLICEDwire | 'An Unfinished Life' movie review (2005) 'An Unfinished Life' review, Lasse Hallstrom, Jennifer Lopez, Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman An Unfinished Life movie review, Lasse Hallstrom, Jennifer Lopez, Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman.