Feast of Love

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I paid money to see Robert Benton's Feast of Love last night. It's a completely decent second-tier relationship drama. That doesn't mean "second-rate" -- it's just not refined enough to be called top of the line. A little too schematic, not enough of an underflow. Maybe it is second rate, but I half-liked it. I was half into it and sometimes fully engrossed, and also a bit bored from time to time, but it didn't hurt altogether.

I respected Gregg Kinnear's willingness to go into vulnerable places, and the growing intimation that you get from Allison Burke's screenplay (based on Charles Baxter's book) that the sad/bad stuff might happen at any time. Radha Mitchell delivers as a conflicted real-estate agent who brings fresh misery into Kinnear's already cloudy life, and hats off to Benton for not shying away from matter-of-fact nudity during the numerous bedroom scenes.

And I really liked Billy Burke's acting as Mitchell's married boyfriend. Burke is mainly a TV actor but he deserves more. He knows how to deliver lines like they're coming from someone (and some place) genuine, and he has a kind of primal Steve McQueen-ish thing going on.

But I absolutely despised a moment early on when Morgan Freeman's charac- ter, a 60ish teacher struggling with the death of his 20-something son from a heroin overdose a year earlier, wakes up in the middle of the night and goes for a stroll. He walks by a vacant baseball field and suddenly sees and hears a softball game in progress -- one he's remembering, presumably. (We all understand scenes like this. Most of us, I mean.) Then all of a sudden it's daylight and people are everywhere and Kinnear comes up to Freeman and starts chatting.

It's a beautiful transition at first -- Freeman might be remembering a conversation he had with Kinnear, or it might be an imaginary chat that he's having in his head. It doesn't matter either way because we're "there" with Freeman -- he inspires trust and comfort no matter who or what he's playing -- and cool with whatever goes down.

But two seconds after Kinnear greets Freeman Benton throws in a title card that says "six months earlier" and the moment is shattered all to hell. Who gives a shit if it's six months earlier or the next morning or the day before or six months hence? We'll figure it out as we go along, no? Nope. Some idiot producer (or perhaps some idiots who were asked about this scene following a research screening) confessed to confusion about the dark-to-daylight element (whoa!) and Benton lost his nerve and put in the title card.

Kowtowing to the dumbest people in the audience will always be a mark of mediocrity, and I lost a lot of respect or Benton at this very moment. A stronger director wouldn't have done this.

Imagine a producer coming up to David Lean during post-production on Lawrence of Arabia and going, "Uhhh, David? I'm not really getting the thing with Peter O'Toole blowing out the match and a split second later we're watching a sunrise in the desert. He's standing in Claude Rains' office when he blows it out, right? I'm not getting how he's suddenly hundreds of miles away in a different country... it's a little disorienting. You need to put in a title card that says, 'Arabian desert -- Three Weeks Later.' People will be less confused this way."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on October 2, 2007 at 9:27 AM

comment #1

thezipper says ...

I saw it over the weekend. Was a little disappointed. The movie creates this loose, casual story flow, but then tries to cram in too much plot (the Fred Ward stuff seemed to belong in a different movie and I thought the Oscar resolution was really abrupt). I agree with you on Billy Burke. Alexa Davalos was great, too. And Kinnear will never get the respect he deserves. I think I've seen Auto Focus more than anyone other than Paul Schrader.

Posted by thezipper at October 2, 2007 10:49 AM

comment #2

Nick Rogers says ...

All I really remember Billy Burke from is "Fracture" and "24," and he struck me as a cut-rate Harry Hamlin in both.

Posted by Nick Rogers at October 2, 2007 10:52 AM

comment #3

Geoff says ...

He played a hilariously over the top role in 24. I can't believe he's actually one of the best parts of the film.

Posted by Geoff at October 2, 2007 10:59 AM

comment #4

gradystiles says ...

"It's virtually unwatchable. My vote for worst line of the year goes to Greg Kinnear as he's walking down the hospital corridor, in response to Morgan Freeman asking him why he's done a certain thing. I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but it's a laughably bad line.

Posted by gradystiles at October 2, 2007 11:13 AM

comment #5

Joel says ...

Go ahead and ruin it, I won't be seeing it.

Posted by Joel at October 2, 2007 11:36 AM

comment #6

gradystiles says ...

Well, hopefully Jeff won't edit my comments this time. Joel: the line occurs after Kinnear has (intentionally) sliced off one of his fingers with a knife. Freeman takes him to the hospital, and as they're walking to see the doctor, Freeman asks Kinnear why he cut off his finger. Kinnear responds, "Because I wanted my body to feel the pain my heart is feeling."

Trust me, after you've sat through more than an hour of Kinnear all sad-eyed and mopey, the line plays even worse than it reads...

Posted by gradystiles at October 2, 2007 12:01 PM

comment #7

BurmaShave says ...

May I ask what happened to the Freeman who played Fast Black? Even Alex Cross? He needs to get some danger back before its too late. I'm so sick of his cuddly god schtick. He was superb in MILLION DOLLAR BABY, but its been downhill since then.

Posted by BurmaShave at October 2, 2007 12:55 PM

comment #8

gruver1 says ...

Wells to gradystiles: Faulty memory. He says that line to the Danish female doctor who patches him up.

Posted by gruver1 at October 2, 2007 1:01 PM

comment #9

Nick Rogers says ...

The line sucks no matter what.

Posted by Nick Rogers at October 2, 2007 1:29 PM

comment #10

gradystiles says ...

Yeah, so sue me...I saw the movie months ago, and tried to forget it, but that line stuck with me--even if I didn't remember to whom it was said. As Nick said, "the line sucks no matter what."

Posted by gradystiles at October 2, 2007 1:46 PM

comment #11

malibugigolo says ...

By that scene I was already rewriting the dialogue as I was watching it. It needed some humor. One dense beat after another. No contrast.

I wish Kinnear would have pulled up his hand and said with his trademark glib smirk.

"Yakuza! Hello!"

It got laughs out of the people around me.

Posted by malibugigolo at October 2, 2007 6:42 PM

comment #12

OddDuck says ...

Billy Burke strikes me as the kind of guy Tarantino could make a star out of nine years from now.

And yes, it's fucking annoying when movies hand-hold ya. I was shocked today when I saw The Kingdom - there were like five different flashback scenese and for each the only purpose was to remind the audience of a plot point or character. Oh, and coming from someone who LOVED Friday Night Lights and who wants to love any half-intelligent action thriller, count me a incredibly let down by The Kingdom!!!! Just really weak...

Reminds me of the commentary on the pilot episode of The Wire, on which the - I suspect - one and only flashback occurs. On the commentary David Simon the creator self-contemptuously explains how he caved to HBO on the flashback and how lame he felt about it afterwards.

Posted by OddDuck at October 2, 2007 9:28 PM

comment #13

Rob says ...

I thought Alexa Davalos and Toby Hemingway's characters were insipidly written, badly played, and completely not reminiscent of any actual young people alive in 2007. At one point Davalos actually looks for apartment listings in the Classifieds section of the newspaper. Who under the age of 35 has ever done this?

Posted by Rob at October 3, 2007 4:22 AM

comment #14