The title and poster of this movie is deceptive, making you think of "Love actually". "Feast of love" (a book-adapted movie) is more pensive, and at times sad, although there is of course the lighter side. I often think that it's a sign of laziness when a film critic quotes dialogues, but when two of the most widely-read critics do the same, there should be some meaning to it.
It's like this. The movie starts with Morgan Freeman playing a retired philosophy professor, sleepless in Portland (close enough to Seattle), walks pensively from his house, with voice over of his thoughts, something to the effect of: The Greek gods were bored, invented humans, still bored, invented love (which was not boring), tried it themselves and invented laughter so they could stand it. That sets the tone of the movie.
And while we are on philosophical thoughts, one question that is asked repeatedly in the movie is whether love is just something to ensure the creation of new babies. This vaguely echoes Shaw's "Man and superman" (what he himself calls "a comedy and a philosophy"), the "Life Force" that brings a man and a women together in a "supreme moment", and all that.
With considerable simplification, one could say that the movie builds on the stories of three couples. Freeman and Jane Alexander play a couple who has recently lost their son to drug addiction and the deepest tragedy it that they never knew the truth until it was too late, seeing their son only as what appears on the surface, a successful doctor. In the second story we witness how a young couple meet (played by Toby Hemingway and Alexa Blair) , fall in love and dream about a wonderful future when they, leaving their poverty behind, build a beautiful family with lots of kids.
The third story (which is in fact the main plot) is about a man's relationship with three women, no, not simultaneously but successively. Greg Kinnear plays an otherwise undistinguished man with Snow White simplicity and purity. Surely, he doesn't deserve the agony of losing his first wife to her randomly-encountered lesbian lover, and his second wife to her formal adultery lover. Still, he finds true love and happiness when he encounters a doctor who does appreciate him. Here, it's the second relationship that take the spotlight, with Radha Mitchell portraying an attractive women who is driven essentially by her reckless passion.
In a way, this movie suffers in not fitting neatly into a niche (as "Love actually" does) and therefore not pleasing some people. But although it does not have the depth of serious dramas, this move has its moments. And despite the opening quote, this movie has a wider scope than mere romantic love, as we find in the end. There is also a positive message, however cliché, that with the tragedies that bring so much sorrow, life goes on and if we make the best of it, we'll see the blessings.
The performances will not bring Oscar nominations, as one critic puts it. But I would add that the acting from a rather large cast is uniformly above being mere competence.
It's like this. The movie starts with Morgan Freeman playing a retired philosophy professor, sleepless in Portland (close enough to Seattle), walks pensively from his house, with voice over of his thoughts, something to the effect of: The Greek gods were bored, invented humans, still bored, invented love (which was not boring), tried it themselves and invented laughter so they could stand it. That sets the tone of the movie.
And while we are on philosophical thoughts, one question that is asked repeatedly in the movie is whether love is just something to ensure the creation of new babies. This vaguely echoes Shaw's "Man and superman" (what he himself calls "a comedy and a philosophy"), the "Life Force" that brings a man and a women together in a "supreme moment", and all that.
With considerable simplification, one could say that the movie builds on the stories of three couples. Freeman and Jane Alexander play a couple who has recently lost their son to drug addiction and the deepest tragedy it that they never knew the truth until it was too late, seeing their son only as what appears on the surface, a successful doctor. In the second story we witness how a young couple meet (played by Toby Hemingway and Alexa Blair) , fall in love and dream about a wonderful future when they, leaving their poverty behind, build a beautiful family with lots of kids.
The third story (which is in fact the main plot) is about a man's relationship with three women, no, not simultaneously but successively. Greg Kinnear plays an otherwise undistinguished man with Snow White simplicity and purity. Surely, he doesn't deserve the agony of losing his first wife to her randomly-encountered lesbian lover, and his second wife to her formal adultery lover. Still, he finds true love and happiness when he encounters a doctor who does appreciate him. Here, it's the second relationship that take the spotlight, with Radha Mitchell portraying an attractive women who is driven essentially by her reckless passion.
In a way, this movie suffers in not fitting neatly into a niche (as "Love actually" does) and therefore not pleasing some people. But although it does not have the depth of serious dramas, this move has its moments. And despite the opening quote, this movie has a wider scope than mere romantic love, as we find in the end. There is also a positive message, however cliché, that with the tragedies that bring so much sorrow, life goes on and if we make the best of it, we'll see the blessings.
The performances will not bring Oscar nominations, as one critic puts it. But I would add that the acting from a rather large cast is uniformly above being mere competence.