12A, 108 mins
Lasse Hallström’s An Unfinished Life has a dream cast and a dismally slushy plot. It’s a toss-up between him and Ron Howard over who can make the most maudlin movie. I think Hallström wins.
The casts put up a brave fight. Robert Redford is terrific as a grumpy, hard-bitten rancher in Wyoming who blames the death of his only son on the careless woman the boy married (Jennifer Lopez). The title refers to the words etched on the gravestone.
Years later, Lopez is forced to seek shelter in one of Redford’s barns when her latest psychotic boyfriend beats her to a pulp. Redford has rarely been so convincing as a bitter and miserable loner. He has the manic tics of an ex-alcoholic and the obsession of man who can’t bury the past.
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A feeble Morgan Freeman is installed in a nearby outhouse to inject gross quantities of sentiment into the plot as Redford’s best friend. The metaphors about a caged grizzly bear in a nearby zoo is a Disney-herring too far.
JAMES CHRISTOPHER