A fantastic cast helps make this adequate character drama work.

Writing: Having had no idea of the existence of the book before hearing of the film, I can make no comparison. Given that the author, Susan Minot, was one of the two credited screenwriters, I have to assume that it’s at least fairly faithful to the source material. The story is pretty well told, but not hugely surprising or powerful. It’s simple, charming and moderately engaging. Perhaps some of the problem is how many times I saw the trailer for this film, which gave away too much of the plot.

Production: One thing this movie could have used was another pass by a different editor. It’s not that the movie is long, but it needed some adjustments to pacing and a little bit smoother sense of flow. The story jumps from past to present quite frequently, and not always as smooth as one would hope. A few of the characters could have been better detailed with some additional material. Set design and location are strong, and cinematography is quite solid. There are some remarkable shots in some scenes, and the simplicity of other scenes is well captured by the camera crew.

Cast: There’s no denying that the main highlight of this film is the cast. There’s no such thing as a bad Claire Danes performance, and this is certainly no exception. Vanessa Redgrave turns in a rather brave performance, appearing as anything but flattering for nearly the entire film on her death bed. Toni Collette, another favorite actress of mine (ever since her fantastic performance in the under-appreciated independent film Clockwatchers), does a nice job as a somewhat free-spirited daughter of the Danes/Redgrave character. Patrick Wilson is up to the task of the primary romantic interest of the film. Hugh Dancy does a remarkable job as the eternally drunk but charming and well meaning character of Buddy (a character that actually takes a slightly unexpected detour from what the trailer implies). And oh yeah, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close also have small roles. Heck, even Meryl Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer, and Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter, Natasha Richardson, have sizable roles. Gummer plays Streep’s character at a younger age. Richardson plays the daughter to Redgrave. Other small roles are filled with excellent actors, such as Barry Bostwick.

Music: Jan A.P. Kaczmerak, who I still hold a tiny grudge against for stealing the 2005 Best Score at the Academy Awards (from John William’s brilliant Prison Of Azkaban and James Newton Howard’s fantastic The Village). Kaczmerak is a respectable talent in film scores, and does an adequate job for this score. I don’t remember noticing much that stands out as great, but it fits the material well.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 10:26 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.