Kirpianuscus maybe, a useful film. for the moments of crisis, sadness, lost of hope. a film about the trust. and about the magic of love. and about the joy and hope and the second chance. nothing surprising. nothing unknown. except, maybe, the convincing side. the work, admirable, no doubt, of Morgan Freeman. and the lovely science of detail. short, a film who must see. for the remind of a special state of soul. and for admire. the pure beauty of life.

SnoopyStyle Harry Stevenson (Morgan Freeman) is a professor in Portland dealing with his son Aaron's death along with wife Esther (Jane Alexander). He befriends coffee house owner Bradley Smith (Greg Kinnear). Bradley has been married to Kathryn (Selma Blair) for six years. He's clueless to her falling in love with Jenny (Stana Katic) two feet away. He tries to force a dog on cynophobic Kathryn and she leaves him. Oscar (Toby Hemingway) works in Bradley's café. Chloe (Alexa Davalos) is a new hire. They quickly fall in love. Oscar is a recovering addict living under his abusive father Bat (Fred Ward). The lovers move in together struggling to make ends meet. Bradley falls for real estate agent Diana (Radha Mitchell) but she is in a secret affair with married David Watson (Billy Burke).I don't like Bradley. I find him annoying. He's playing the smiling fool. He's clueless and pathetic. His stunt with the dog is particularly annoying. That's some passive aggressive stuff. He is suppose to be lovable but I find him off-putting. I appreciate the other parts of the movie and the general theme of tragedy of love. Morgan Freeman is once again playing the wise black man although it does work well with Chloe. This is a nice try.

detroitrockscene The book was set in Ann Arbor (Michigan), home of the University Of Michigan and much of the 60's counterculture. The movie was shot and set in Portland. Changing the setting in a story like this is like taking a story set in 1920's New York City and changing it to modern day L.A. This was done because Hollywood film execs don't even know anything exists between New York and L.A. They cast women as men, Frenchmen as Scots, and only rarely do they get history right. If you are from another country or another planet, details like this may not matter to you. If you think things like places and people matter, you may find fault with this film.

edwagreen Most of the picture appears to be a revisiting of Peyton Place where Greg Kinnear is totally lost in the world of love. He loses his first wife quickly to a lesbian relationship, rushes into a 2nd marriage where the woman has had a relationship with the man she sold a house to several years back. It is only when he cuts his finger to experience pain that he finds the true meaning of love with the emergency room doctor. It almost sounds comical but it is only that the unfortunate idea of tragedy saves this movie from being a disaster.Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander play an inter-racially married couple whose doctor son has recently died of an overdose. Alexander has had experience with inter-racial roles having starred in the 1970 hit "The Great White Hope."As if this isn't enough, a young couple struggle to find love and the woman finds out from a seer that her young boyfriend has but a short time to live. He has come from a dysfunctional home where the mother left long ago. When tragedy intervenes, our pregnant widow is given the opportunity to go live with Freeman and Stevenson, both of whom wish to rebuild their shattered lives.While depressing, the film does emphasize the continuity of life. It is the ultimate redemption of shattered lives picking up the pieces.