It is hard to understand what Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom saw in the script for "An Unfinished Life, 2005). Owner of a positive career, of films such as My dog life (Mitt liv som hund, 1985), The Cider House Rules, 1999) and Arrivals and departures, 2001), the filmmaker makes a beautiful stumble in his most recent work, which addresses in a superficial and simplistic way one of the favorite themes of the dramas: the family's relationship with the loss. The secret to understanding what goes on in the minds of the characters in "An Unfinished Life" does not lie in observing their actions or even their conversations, but rather their looks and, mainly, their silences. Dominated by essentially introspective individuals, the film devotes great attention to the way in which they try to hide their feelings - and even when they speak out about something or someone, it is perfectly possible (even often) that they are saying something that they do not really mean.
Centered on the troubled relationship between rancher Einar Gilkyson (Redford) and his daughter-in-law Jean (Lopez), the script written by the couple Mark and Virginia Spragg wastes no time in introducing us to the characters before confronting them: already ten minutes into the projection, Jean is forced to flee from her boyfriend who beats her and, with nowhere else to take her 11-year-old daughter Griff (Becca Gardner), she decides to ask her father-in-law for shelter, who blames her for his son's death in a car accident. 12 years earlier. However, when he discovers that he has a granddaughter (Jean had left town after the funeral), Einar decides to allow them to stay at his ranch and, little by little, he becomes close to the girl. Meanwhile, his old assistant Mitch (Freeman), who was disfigured by a bear about a year ago, must deal with the aftermath of the attack and the return of the animal, imprisoned in a small zoo nearby.
In the first moments, the spectator with the minimum of experience perceives what is to come. The plot is predictable and some scenes are even perfect re-enactments of clichés related to the genre. The pace of the film, however, is quite pleasant and the story does not fall into a tiring pace, which could be a negative factor. Director Lasse Hallstrom seems to show once again that he has the timing of the drama, as we could already see in some of his previous films. Investing only in a few sketches of subplots, "An Unfinished Life" is aware of narrating a predictable story and does not seek to reinvent the wheel: we know that Einar will eventually let himself be enchanted by his granddaughter, we know that he will reach some kind of understanding with his daughter-in-law , we know that Jean's violent boyfriend will appear at some point to generate some kind of conflict, we know that Mitch will serve as an advisor to the former boss (also because he is played by Morgan Freeman, a specialist in these roles), and so on. Thus, the Spragg couple try - without much success - to add one or another element that generates tension throughout the projection: will the two drunks attacked by Einar try to take revenge? Will the bear return to "finish" the job he started a year ago?
In fact, none of these matters much: the script always does better when it observes incidents that, while not "cinematic", are shocking enough for its characters: when Griff is forced to give Mitch an injection, for example, this becomes relevant not because it involves action or suspense, but because we know how traumatizing something like that can be for a kid that age. Unfortunately, the screenwriters don't show a lot of confidence in themselves, often resorting to features that they consider potentially more "dramatic". The presence of the bear in "An Unfinished Life" should not be intended to generate tension, but rather to serve the metaphor in which the film itself tries so hard to invest and which, despite being obvious, is sufficiently well established to exert its influence. Narrative purpose: seeing that violent and unpredictable bear subdued and locked in a small cell is as sad a spectacle as witnessing the efforts of the other characters so that their feelings never surface. For Einar, Jean, Griff and Mitch, the cage they live in is the world itself - and when the latter asks his friend to release the animal that attacked him, he is saying, in his own way, to let go of his hurts and resentments, freeing out of a self-imposed emotional prison and back among the living.
The plot premise is reasonable, but the script development disappoints. It is a festival of obvious metaphors, of familiar situations. If you've ever seen a drama in your life, you'll guess without any effort the entire unfolding of the film. As there are no surprises, it is difficult to relate to the film, to fear for the fate of its characters. There is, however, the pleasure of watching Robert Redford perform. He embraces Einar in such a way that there is no way to ignore him. Without the slightest effort to hide his age: disheveled, with a permanent beard and a habit of muttering to himself, Einar is a bitter man who believes he has been wronged by life - not realizing that, right beside him, the old friend Mitch may have much more tangible reasons for complaining and for blaming someone else for his accident, but never doing so. On the other hand, he passes like one of the rancher's tractors over his fellow protagonist, Jennifer Lopez.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Lopez proves to be much more efficient as an actress when she plays a secondary character ("Shaw We Dance"), giving Jean a dramatic dimension through her fragile voice and the vulnerability she shows in front of her ex-boyfriend. However, the big reveal here is the young Becca Gardner, who transforms Griff into a real girl, escaping the irritating stereotype of the "precocious child" and transforming her into a reserved and sad girl who was obviously affected by all the acts of violence that has been compelled to testify over the years. It's an economical performance that never fails to ring true. Really good are the scenes between Einar and Mitch, especially the one involving Griff and a brief discussion about gay cowboys. But they are good for one reason only. They are very reminiscent of the relationship between the characters of Freeman and Clint Eastwood in the exceptional "Million Dollar Baby (2004)". In fact, Mitch is a true carbon copy of Eddie, a character that Freeman lived in the film that won him the Oscar for supporting the previous year.
Mitch is the type of role Freeman is best known and most rewarded for. He does this with advice (for example, be nice to Griff, which Einar rejects and then absorbs in spite of himself) and with descriptions of his night dreams, each a valuable lesson wrapped in figurative imagery - he dreams of the sea (he "Tastes like a woman") and who can fly, so high that he can see the meaning of life ("From up there you could see everything that exists, and it seemed that there was a reason for everything"). For all its attention to decaying landscapes and independence, cowboys and allegiances, the film is more singularly melodramatic than adventurous.
The unfinished life in the original title at first seems to refer to Einar's dead son. Then we realize that death has put Einar, Jean, Mitch and Griff on hold. Until they deal with it, they can't get on with things. The way they handle it isn't original, but it's sincere and the actors are convincing. The solution involving the bear was interesting, even more so after seeing "Grizzly Man" and remembering Werner Herzog's haunting narration: A bear's "blank stare", he says, does not reveal wisdom, but "only half-bored interest in the food." While it is reasonable for bears to want to be free, it may not be reasonable for humans to want to live near free bears.
Mitch's physical scars are no different than Einer's and Jean's emotional ones, making Mitch's compassionate interest in the bear that nearly killed him an act of progressive forgiveness that will eventually be passed on to the spiteful Einer, who blames Jean for his son's death. While this sensitive male coming-of-age plot at least offers the still-dominant Redford an opportunity to work out his routine in the field, Jean's escape from victimization - functioning primarily as a device to give the increasingly sensitive Einer a means of showing his protective affection for her and her daughter - simply proves that enough apparently wasn't simplistic battered women nonsense.
Packed by a beautiful soundtrack composed by Deborah Lurie and photographed with the usual talent by Oliver Stapleton (regular collaborator of director Lasse Hallstrom), An Unfinished Life does not deviate much from the type of production that the Swedish filmmaker has been commanding in recent years: supposedly intimate melodramas that often veer into the water with sugar. Incidentally, even Einar's character shares obvious elements with the characters played by Michael Caine and Juliette Binoche in The Cider House Rules and Chocolate, respectively, bringing introspection and a lonely air as the fruits of past tragedies. In the end, Hallstrom's film is nothing groundbreaking or extraordinary. It's just a beautiful story of forgiveness and starting over.
