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Excellent performances by Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear help anchor Robert Benton's rocky tale of the stages of romance,
a semi-sweet movie
a semi-sweet movie
Love Hurts:
Feast of Love
9-28-07 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive review
By Richard Knight, Jr.
Feast of Love
9-28-07 "Knight Thoughts" web exclusive review
By Richard Knight, Jr.
In Feast of Love as in many previous Morgan Freeman movies, we hear him speak in voice over before we see his face. Hearing
Freeman begin to narrate (whether it be War of the Worlds or The Shawshank Redemption) has come to mean two things to an
audience: that we are about to see something that will impart at least one Life Lesson (usually more) and that we are going to be
spoiled each time the actor speaks. Not since Orson Welles shilled for that wine company in the 1970s to raise cash for yet another
movie project has there been a voice as soothing to the ears of an audience as Freeman's. Oh, maybe Marianne Williamson, the
spiritualist, or at times, Maya Angelou (though her weighty dramatics have a tendency to wear). So, if nothing else draws you to
Feast of Love, the latest from writer-director Robert Benton, perhaps the opportunity to once again watch a movie while listening to
Freeman narrate will suffice. If Benton's movie had gone in different directions with its interesting characters, perhaps that would
have been enough for me. But, well, it just wasn't.
The movie, based on a novel, focuses on a group of love hungry, disparate folks in Oregon. Freeman plays Harry Stevenson, a
professor who is on sabbatical from the university where he teaches following the death of his only child. He's marvelous as is Jane
Alexander as his wry, mournful wife. So is the inestimable Greg Kinnear as Bradley, the owner of a coffee shop where the professor
spends hours observing the courting dance of everyone around him. Everyone, it seems, is looking for love and finding it in all the
wrong places. First, love struck Kinnear loses his wife (Selma Blair) to another woman. Then he can't see the trouble he's in for
when a knockout blond Realtor (Radha Mitchell), a tough cookie involved with a married man, goes after Kinnear on the rebound
when the affair breaks up. Bradley just wants to be in love again and ignores all the warning signs. There's also the young blond
hottie Oscar (Toby Hemingway) who can't keep his mitts off Jenny (Stana Katic) who returns the favor. It's the real thing for these
starry-eyed lovers but life in the form of Oscar's bitter father (Fred Ward) and little or no money keeps getting in the way (even a
porno the couple make to raise cash doesn't bring much money: "You smiled too much, you look too happy" they are told when
their take is lower than promised by Jenny's roommate).
Harry observes most of this (and seems to intuit the rest in one of his voice overs) and something else: the first blush of romance is
dashed away almost at once by all the characters; love for these folks is a cause for trouble and anxiety. At one point the movie
even has Jenny visit a fortuneteller who makes an ominous prediction that adds more bitterness to the semi-sweet plot. Then the
movie shifts into its last act in which all the lovers - even the ex-wives, husbands, and dragoons will return to take place in a finale
awash in tears amidst the sunset glow. But unlike Smiles of a Summer Night which Feast of Love seems a modern day version of,
there isn't much of the pleasurable glow that one anticipates and that the characters have worked so hard to achieve. Also, the
sudden reappearance of the ex-spouses into the movie with everyone cuddling and gushy all smiles and laughter hanging out at a
softball game in the park feels patently false - a reunion as staged for the cameras by Coca-Cola for one of their icky 1970s
commercials. Though excellent at times, Benton's movie could have used much more of the lunacy of Moonstruck, another love
soaked movie and failing that, more characters for the audience to root for. Feast of Love is far from the correct title for Benton's
movie. Appetizer of Love is more apt - and a semi-sweet one of that, Freeman's delicious voice over or no.
Freeman begin to narrate (whether it be War of the Worlds or The Shawshank Redemption) has come to mean two things to an
audience: that we are about to see something that will impart at least one Life Lesson (usually more) and that we are going to be
spoiled each time the actor speaks. Not since Orson Welles shilled for that wine company in the 1970s to raise cash for yet another
movie project has there been a voice as soothing to the ears of an audience as Freeman's. Oh, maybe Marianne Williamson, the
spiritualist, or at times, Maya Angelou (though her weighty dramatics have a tendency to wear). So, if nothing else draws you to
Feast of Love, the latest from writer-director Robert Benton, perhaps the opportunity to once again watch a movie while listening to
Freeman narrate will suffice. If Benton's movie had gone in different directions with its interesting characters, perhaps that would
have been enough for me. But, well, it just wasn't.
The movie, based on a novel, focuses on a group of love hungry, disparate folks in Oregon. Freeman plays Harry Stevenson, a
professor who is on sabbatical from the university where he teaches following the death of his only child. He's marvelous as is Jane
Alexander as his wry, mournful wife. So is the inestimable Greg Kinnear as Bradley, the owner of a coffee shop where the professor
spends hours observing the courting dance of everyone around him. Everyone, it seems, is looking for love and finding it in all the
wrong places. First, love struck Kinnear loses his wife (Selma Blair) to another woman. Then he can't see the trouble he's in for
when a knockout blond Realtor (Radha Mitchell), a tough cookie involved with a married man, goes after Kinnear on the rebound
when the affair breaks up. Bradley just wants to be in love again and ignores all the warning signs. There's also the young blond
hottie Oscar (Toby Hemingway) who can't keep his mitts off Jenny (Stana Katic) who returns the favor. It's the real thing for these
starry-eyed lovers but life in the form of Oscar's bitter father (Fred Ward) and little or no money keeps getting in the way (even a
porno the couple make to raise cash doesn't bring much money: "You smiled too much, you look too happy" they are told when
their take is lower than promised by Jenny's roommate).
Harry observes most of this (and seems to intuit the rest in one of his voice overs) and something else: the first blush of romance is
dashed away almost at once by all the characters; love for these folks is a cause for trouble and anxiety. At one point the movie
even has Jenny visit a fortuneteller who makes an ominous prediction that adds more bitterness to the semi-sweet plot. Then the
movie shifts into its last act in which all the lovers - even the ex-wives, husbands, and dragoons will return to take place in a finale
awash in tears amidst the sunset glow. But unlike Smiles of a Summer Night which Feast of Love seems a modern day version of,
there isn't much of the pleasurable glow that one anticipates and that the characters have worked so hard to achieve. Also, the
sudden reappearance of the ex-spouses into the movie with everyone cuddling and gushy all smiles and laughter hanging out at a
softball game in the park feels patently false - a reunion as staged for the cameras by Coca-Cola for one of their icky 1970s
commercials. Though excellent at times, Benton's movie could have used much more of the lunacy of Moonstruck, another love
soaked movie and failing that, more characters for the audience to root for. Feast of Love is far from the correct title for Benton's
movie. Appetizer of Love is more apt - and a semi-sweet one of that, Freeman's delicious voice over or no.
