an unfinished life

My wife and I just finished watching the film an unfinished life, starring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, and Jennifer Lopez. A strong supporting cast (including Camryn Manheim, Damian Lewis, and Josh Lucas), excellent production, and a beautiful setting garnished a rather compelling story of forgiveness, love, and redemption. The film, rated PG13 for language and some violence, is the story of a thirty-something single mother/widow who seeks a safe haven for her and her daughter at her ex-father-in-law's Montana ranch to get away from domestic violence.

The writers do a great job in peeling away the different layers of each character to reveal their motivations, and except for one needless dialogue scene that had no relationship to anything before or after--apparently to satisfy the homosexual lobby agenda--the story skillfully interweaves the demons that affect each character. Watching Redford and Freeman together was a real treat, but the centerpiece relationship for me, however, was between Redford's character and his granddaughter, played by Becca Gardner.

Having seen Lopez in Enough, and Angel Eyes--two stories with very strong themes on domestic violence--this was a more realistic performance, but I think that the writing had something to do with that. The director, Lasse Hallstrom, exacted some excellent performances that made each protagonist quite sympathic as they struggled with their "ghosts" from the past, and as a result, I found myself rooting for each one of them.

Except for that one meaningless-to-the-story scene, we both liked this movie. It's now available on DVD, and well worth the time.