At 74, Morgan Freeman automatically brings a lot of gravitas
to the roles he plays. The qualities he seems to personify include intellect, wisdom,
humor. One thing Freeman generally doesn't get to play is a romantic lead.
In The Magic of Belle Isle, as Monty Wildhorn, Freeman has to stretch our credibility while playing an alcoholic irascible wheel-chair-bound author of American westerns. We know from his other roles that he has a soft chocolate
center inside his hard shell and know that by the end of the film he (and we)
will find it.
Monty, a depressed widower, has given up writing when he moves
to a summer home by a lake in upstate New York beside divorced pretty blonde mother of three, Charlotte O’Neill
(Virginia Madsen). Charlotte’s daughters seem are stereotypical: Willow, the
pouty teen; Finn, a precocious 9-year-old who wants to learn to tell stories, and
Flora, the youngest sister who still loves to be read to by her mother.
Having given you the
situation, I’m pretty sure you can see where this gentle movie is heading:
Monty becomes the loving, caring person we know he is. Charlotte finds in him the
caring companion she seeks. Willow finally sees life through her mother’s eyes
and reaches out to her. Tomboy Finn learns to see things that aren’t there and
create the stories with the imagination she doesn’t know she has. Flora
finds a father figure who actually cares about her.
The playwrights (Guy Thomas, Rob Reiner, and Andrew Scheinman)
seem to really like their characters, and as we would expect, the town (and film) are filled with characters that we can learn to appreciate. Although the situations are pretty
predictable, we can leisurely enjoy the character studies director Reiner
presents. [Spoiler Alert] The surprise of the film is the romance that develops
between Freeman and Madsen, moreso because of the age differences than the
racial differences. The two have enough charisma that we care about them and their future. In that way, the ending becomes a surprise because it
allows us to have the romantic ending we think should be but which more “realistic”
directors might disdain.
I really enjoyed the film and the various characters. As Finn, Emma Fuhrmann gives a charming performance. The interaction between her and Freeman is one of the fun things about the production. Once again by the end, however, it is Freeman I came to see... and once again he shows himself one of our Living
National Treasures.
The Magic of Belle Isle (2012) ****
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