Here is the gripping story of Jack's transformation from an awkward speaker into a brilliant politician with irresistible charm. Dallek reveals for the first time the full story of Kennedy's wartime actions and the true details of how Joe was killed, opening the door to Jack's ascendancy. Forced into the shadow of his older brother, Joe, Jack struggled to find a place for himself until World War II, when he became a national hero and launched his career. Still, in domesticating Lopez's character, just as he's done with those of other, reputedly untamable entertainment thoroughbreds (Barbra Streisand and Jane Fonda, for instance), Redford proved he's still got that diva whisperer thing going on.An Unfinished Life describes the birth of the Kennedy dynasty, the complexity of Jack's early years, and the mixture of adulation and resentment that tangled his relationships with his mother, Rose, and his father, Joseph. And Redford? Well, the dear man is looking more and more like a baked apple under that cowboy hat. But just as Donald Trump couldn't convince us he's Bob Cratchit, so Lopez doesn't fly as a battered waitress with low self-esteem. She's distancing herself from the J.Lo persona. Lopez, alas, befuddles in her role as a mouthy, down-on-her-luck gal in need of rescuing. Scenes in which the girl's mere presence transforms Einar from grief-stricken father to profoundly tender grandpa ring true and are the film's sweetest. Quieter, though equally riveting, is winsome Becca Gardner as Jean's daughter, Griff. What a crazy world it is, the film illustrates, when someone can shoot or cage the bear that instinctively tried to rustle up a Mitch entrée but is forbidden by law to similarly quash a willfully, repeatedly abusive human being.Įnglish actor Damian Lewis is creepily convincing as Jean's scummy ex, and he invigorates the few scenes he's in. Along the way they, and we, are prompted to muse on forgiveness and punishment and who merits which. A cast of characters, trapped in various stages of the grief cycle, struggle to switch gears from shock to denial and anger to bargaining and finally acceptance. Ultimately, though, An Unfinished Life's main thrusts are emotional. Thanks to Josh Lucas's hunky sheriff, there is fleeting sex. But wouldn't you know it, Einar still blames Jean for his son's death 11 years earlier. Like Swank's character, Jean is a punching bag, albeit not for a prize purse: she and her daughter have fled an abusive boyfriend. That is, until Einar's estranged daughter-in-law, Jean, disrupts the old-fart fiefdom. Here, Einar Gilkyson, Redford's taciturn rancher (in the Clint Eastwood curmudgeon role), and Mitch Bradley, Morgan Freeman's bear-attack survivor (reprising his Baby-esque sidekick-with-defective-body-part- living-at-his-boss's-place role) bicker away their golden years in Beautiful B.C. It's not as depressing as Million Dollar Baby, although An Unfinished Life often channels that Oscar winner. Until then, director Lasse Hallstríƒ ¶m's newest film remains a well-meaning snooze fest. Doubtless they're waiting for Paul Newman or a dozen backup dancers to ride up, toting some narrative pizzazz in their saddlebags. Case in point is An Unfinished Life, wherein erstwhile on-screen dazzlers Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez spend an awful lot of time wearing earth tones and staring out windows. We just don't appreciate celebrity glitz until it's gone. Starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman, and Becca Gardner.
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