Three out of
Five stars
Running time:
100 mins
Watchable, well-acted emotional drama, though it feels frustratingly patchy at times.
What's it all about?
Based on the novel by Charles Baxter, Feast of Love stars Morgan Freeman as Oregon professor Henry Stevenson, who witnesses love wreaking havoc amongst his friends at the local coffee shop. These include: coffee shop owner Bradley (Greg Kinnear), who meets edgy estate agent Diana (Radha Mitchell) after his wife, Kathryn (Selma Blair), leaves him for another woman; and beautiful waitress Chloe (Alexa Davalos), who takes a chance on troubled Oscar (Toby Hemingway), even though a psychic warns her that fate has other plans for him.
However, each relationship proves more complex than it first appears, with Diana caught up in an affair with a married man (Billy Burke) and Oscar's psychotic father (Fred Ward) causing problems in his relationship with Chloe. Meanwhile, Henry's wife (Jane Alexander) tries to get him to come to terms with his grief at the loss of their daughter.
The Good
The performances are excellent, particularly Freeman, who clearly relishes having a meaty emotional role for once, as opposed to the wise old mentor figures he usually plays. Kinnear is equally good, while Davalos shines in the film's most emotionally complex role – her final scenes with Freeman are genuinely moving.
The Bad
Kramer vs Kramer director Robert Benton is well suited to this kind of heart-wrenching material, but none of the stories are really dramatic enough to sustain our interest, no matter how much Benton tries to liven things up with a spot of nudity (not Kinnear's, thankfully, though both Mitchell and Davalos spend several scenes with nothing on).
In addition, the script frustratingly ignores its most interesting character – the film begins with the development of Kathryn's lesbian affair but her character completely disappears after that.
Worth seeing?
Feast of Love is worth seeing for its performances but its patchy nature and jumpy chronology mean that it's never as emotionally engaging as it should have been.