An Unfinished Life

Since it's just about friday, I thought I'd write a movie review.

An Unfinished Life

Stars: Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lopez, Josh Lucas, Bart the Bear
Director: Lasse Hallström
PG-13

Great. Forget how you feel about J-Lo and/or Robert Redford. This is a must see. It's set in Wyoming in the present time. A down and out single mom (Lopez) name Jean is forced by abusive circumstances to return to Wyoming to live with her father-in-law. Einar (Redford) doesn't like Jean. He blames her for his son's death, something that happened a long time ago. Together, they most co-exist on Einar's ranch along with Mitch (Freeman), Einar's best friend and ranch hand, and Jean's daughter, Griff, named after her father, Griffin. Mitch is a cripple, recovering from a bear (Bart the Bear) attack the previous year. And Crane (Lucas) is Jean's eye candy.

The characters are complex and very flawed, especially Jean and Einar. But they're familiar and we can't fault them because we can't say we'd act any differently in their situations. Like many of Hallström's movies, the setting is also a character (see Chocolat, The Shipping News, and The Cider House Rules). And when bears aren't doing this, or being labeled as the number one threat facing America, they can be an amazing metaphor for a person's past. It's definitely a movie about the characters.

Essentially it boils down to this theme: facing your past and being set free from it. And the idea of an unfinished life is very appropriate and very challenging.

This is easily one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's humorous (in the cantankerous relationship between Mitch and Einar and that perception to a young girl), it's beautifully filmed (in Wyoming) and written, it's sad (in the unfinished relationship between a father and son), and it's ultimately redemptive. Plus it's well directed and extremely well acted.

With all that said, I highly recommend this movie.