An Unfinished Life
dir. Hallström
Opens Fri Sept 9
Various Theaters
They don’t make ’em like they used to, as they say. Lasse Hallström’s An Unfinished Life is, in many ways, a return to old-fashioned cinema—in which the men are brave, wise, and strong; the women are desperate, determined, and beautiful; and everyone’s pain is easy to relate to.
There are no plot twists, and the story’s events are predictable from the film’s opening. The victims of domestic abuse, Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and her daughter Griff (Becca Gardner) flee to the only place possible for them: Wyoming. There they are grudgingly sheltered by the father of Jean’s dead husband, Einar (Robert Redford), who blames Jean for his son’s accidental death.
The film plays to everybody’s strengths—Redford’s unsurprisingly comfortable in his standby role of a capable but bitter old rancher, and Morgan Freeman does his Morgan Freeman thing as Mitch, Einar’s long-time work partner and friend who was mauled by a bear a year previous. Still suffering excruciating pain and disability, Freeman ladles on his old-timer charm and sage advice, as usual. Then there’s the bear itself, a wildlife muse recruited to lend an extremely foggy universality to the film’s theme.
The buzz around Life is centered around the Oscars: Will it get one, does it deserve one, was it made in order to get one? That, and: Does J.Lo totally fail? My predictions, in that order, are: Who cares anymore, no, and probably. As for J.Lo, she’s sufficiently believable, though her character is un-dynamically challenge-less. (Her competence, however, will likely win a bit of trust among moviegoers who automatically expect to hate her.)
While Life is certainly formulaic, there’s a worthy comfort in its familiarity, that “It’ll be okay” pat on the head that serves as cinematic solace. Still, there are woeful clichés, unbelievable dysfunction, and underdeveloped back stories and relationships. It’s a film that makes damn sure to moisten your eyes—and it does, if only by carefully avoiding any risk taking.