Purely Joyful Movie!

How sad is this?

Great Film overall

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

If you've seen 'Enough', you know that Jennifer Lopez doesn't always have good judgement about men. In An Unfinished Life, she flees from an abusive boyfriend and seeks refuge at her father-in-law's ranch in Wyoming. She and Pops don't get along, because he blames her for his son's death and she's never told him he has a granddaughter. But with enough time and the truth, they might be able to reconcile.Robert Redford is the father-in-law, and he's completely at home in his natural habitat. It's always great to see him surrounded by the nature he loves. In the film, he's caring for his friend Morgan Freeman, who's recovering from a bear attack. The scenes with the famous Bart the Bear are pretty remarkable, but be sure and reassure the kiddies in the audience that Bart is a trained bear.I liked this family drama; it wasn't too heavy to make it depressing, and it wasn't corny or riddled with comic-relief jokes. For those who like second chances, you've got three plot lines to enjoy: the family drama between Jenny and Bob, a little romance between Jenny and Josh Lucas, and Morgan's journey to recover from and forgive the bear.

Nobody should ever complain after watching a Robert Redford movie. After all these years, we know exactly what he's about and what he will show us. A lot of magnificent scenery with fantastic cinematography, and an old curmudgeon unaware that he's just waiting on a chance at redemption. Redford cares deeply about his movies and he always makes them high-quality and totally out of step with the current fashion. This is a good thing if you're not particularly enthusiastic about still more comic-book flicks and space fantasies and remakes and movies based on old TV shows, along with explosions and crazy driving.This time around, Redford is in fine form as always, and he has skillful backup, again as always. He's not interested in hogging the screen and insists on having perfectly-tuned performances from the other characters. There's really nothing left to say about Morgan Freeman, but Jennifer Lopez is the big surprise here. De-glammed from a magazine cover goddess to a naturally pretty, stressed-out, mistake-prone woman in her mid-30s and at the end of her rope, JLo fits right in with her esteemed colleagues and in fact holds her own with them. She's rarely praised for her acting, but she certainly deserves it for this role. These three hold down the center of the film, but everybody else in the cast also does superb work. Not a single dud in the bunch.Redford's Einar has let himself many years ago. He's unshaven, his hair sticks out in all directions, he's not clean nor does he wear clean clothes. He clearly just doesn't give a bowel movement. When I was little, I had a great-uncle who looked the same way and visits to his house were always guaranteed to be an experience. So Einar is an archetype, and a very good one. He and Morgan Freeman's Mitch are two very badly damaged men; Einar psychologically and Mitch physically. Meanwhile, JLo's Jean has run out of options and she's forced to turn to the one man and to return to the one place that she swore she'd never go near again. At first glance, the unfinished life in the title seems to refer to Einar's long-dead son, but it turns out that it's also about Einar and Jean and Mitch. All three had their lives stopped by some tragedy and they learn to finally move on with the help of the other two.Anyway, "An Unfinished Life" is an enjoyable, leisurely, easy-going movie experience and I highly recommend it. Especially if you're looking for a break from our routine movie options, like I said earlier.

When I watched this one, I think it should have been called "Those Left Behind". The son of Robert Redford who is now deceased, is not really the focus of the story. The story is more about the surviving Dad, the widow daughter-in-law (JLO), and the bear mauled hired help (Freeman).I think Freeman makes out the best of the main players, as his dramatic acting style and personality are in top for here. A far as who steals the movie - Becca Gardner who plays Refords Grand Daughter does that. Her relationship and acting with all the characters is the most talented and extremely well done.Redford is okay as the Grandfather who is sad his son has left so soon which is what leads to the title. He died in an accident, and Redford does not want to face it. It is finally the Grand Daughter and Freeman who bring him around.Lopez shows up at Redford's door to escape an abusive boyfriend who shows up eventually, with the Grand Daughter. While the film as a whole is not great, it is worth watching. I saw this one cut for television with commercials, so I have a feeling the theater version has more adult material than I have seen. The framework here is okay after the cuts.

Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez. Each one is the owner of a specific perspective or a perspective appeal which everybody will expect them to perform. Except for Lopez, the other two are perfectly convinced of the importance to the whole world that someone like them exist. At least as actors. So, if this premises make the creation of a film with this mixture something quite hard to achieve, join Lasse Hallström to the group. For what i've seen, he did fairly well in Chocolate, because the group of actors was good (Depp and Binoche, Molina and Dench). Predictably he wouldn't do anything worthwhile here. Confirmed.Start with the script. It just moves the necessary stones to make what Redford and Freeman need in the first place. The first one recovers his character from 'Out of Africa', free spirit, detached from the conventions of the ordinary world, trying to live a free life, and paying the price of unhappy and ultimately undesired loneliness. Freeman recovers his only character. The 'i'm always right' guy. The man of the words, incredible how he made a career out of delivering the same kind of insipid thinking over and over again, without any tone change. Some good actors started doing it in the curse of the career (Hopkins, sometimes Nicholson), but this one did it all the time. Jennifer Lopez plays along, she's more honest in her integration here than the other two, at least she doesn't take personal egos into it.Also the base problem of stories of good and evil. This case we have the also common variant of good, yet deviated people. Lopez and Redford's characters have a dark event in their common past that separated them, but deep down they're good, very good people. This is established from the beginning. I mean, what's the point? Not even the potentially interesting connection with the wilderness of the spirit (the relation with the bear, and all the meanings that could flow from there) was well made. Well, there was also a role Freeman would have to perform.The landscapes were well chosen, it had potential, pity the sad story that was placed there.Side note: did the violent ex-boyfriend go back to town just to get beaten by Redford? Or was there some angle i missed? My opinion: 1/5http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com