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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Feast of Love

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#1 of 1 Posted 9/5/07 10:18 PM

From Harveycritic Posts 1637 Last Jan-30
To All [Msg # 22623.1 ]

FEAST OF LOVE

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
MGM
Grade: B
Directed by:    Robert Benton
Written By: Allison Burnett, book by Charles Baxter
Cast:   Morgan Freeman, Selma Blair, Greg Kinnear, Radha Mitchell, Alexa Davalos, Toby Hemingway,
Fred Ward, Shannon Lucio, Jane Alexander
Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 9/5/07
Opens: September 14, 2007

Says one character, “Is love just nature’s plot to give us lots of screaming babies, or is it the only thing that matters?”   “Feast of Love” explores this question with a kaleidoscopic look at love in Portland, Oregon: how what Shaw called the Life Force makes one person so miserable that he deliberately stabs his finger so that he might physically feel the pain of his broken heart, while it brings various forms of happiness and tragedy to others. Robert Benton, whose “Kramer vs. Kramer” is about a divorced man who must fight for custody of his son, is mellower this time around. The movie is so vividly lensed by Kramer Morgenthau in the states of Oregon and Washington that we New Yorkers might wonder why we continue to live on the East Coast. But geography notwithstanding, a beautiful state is no panacea for the torments brought about by love.

A tale of passion, longing and regret, “Feast of Love” received its first incarnation as a novel whose author, Charles Baxter, wakes from a nightmare and goes for a moonlit walk through his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. While sitting on a park bench, he is joined by an acquaintance of 12 years, Bradley, who offers himself as a character and suggests: “You should call it ‘The Feast of Love.’ I'm the expert on that. I should write that book. I'm an expert on love. I've just broken up with my second wife, after all. I'm in an emotional tangle. Maybe I'd shoot myself before the final chapter. Your readers would wonder about the outcome. Everybody's got a story.”

Adapted from the novel by Allison Burnett, the film goes from couple to couple, one of which has stayed married and in love for decades, others whose romantic feelings last for a few years and in one case, a marriage that breaks up within a month.   The central figure narrating the tale is Harry (Morgan Freeman), a professor on leave for an indefinite period who, with his wife, Esther (Jane Alexander), still mourns the death of his son, Aaron, a victim of a heroin overdose. He is a regular patron of a coffee shop run by Bradley (Greg Kinnear), who regularly seeks the professor’s counsel on matters of love, particularly after his own wife, Kathryn (Selma Blair), discovers she’d rather hook up with another.   woman than stay with him, particularly given their violent disagreement on the virtues of dogs. The jilted and lonely Bradley is fodder for the next woman who comes along, but the beautiful, sophisticated real-estate agent, Diana (Radha Mitchell), juggles her relationship with Bradley and with a married man, David (Billy Burke).

The side characters are sometimes youthful reflections or their seniors , notably Oscar (Toby Hemingway), a former heroin addict, and Chloe (Alexa Davalos)–the two workers in Bradley’s coffee shop falling for each other at first sight though tormented by Oscar’s alcoholic, violent father, Bat (Fred Ward).

The picture contains ample nudity and sexual tanglings to project to the audience that maybe love really is just nature’s plot to bring babies into the world, and when one character dies suddenly, bringing grief to his loved one, Bradley is convinced that “God is either dead or he despises us.”

“Feast of Love” is a treat for the eyes, albeit without the tensions of Benton’s masterwork, “Kramer vs. Kramer.” If novelist Baxter who created these characters believes that love is so vital that we should embrace its seductions head-on despite the odds of setbacks and outright disasters, he is anything but gung-ho in this faith. Under Robert Benton’s direction, the folks who inhabit this community in Oregon offer a laboratory-like vision of love’s impact on a diverse group whose stories are ultimately woven together.

Rated R.    102 minutes   © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Feast of Love

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