Best movie of this year hands down!

Great Film overall

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's too bad this movie never really had a big theater presence. I happened to find it on Netflix and was pleasantly surprised. You see J-Lo's name and think "ugh", and then Redford & Freeman "Hello!", but everyone is great in this movie and very believable. First I thought it was only going to be about the Woman & her Daughter running from an abuser, but it turned out to be so much more......an angry man who lost a son, a friend who is stuck in a damaged body, death, life, BEARS (lol!).It's heartfelt, simple, nothing fancy, but really makes you think about wasting time.

When I saw this movie listed on the TV schedule I was surprised to see the names of Redford and Freeman starring in a film made nine years ago that I had never heard of. I have long been a fan of both of the actors and figured this can't be all that bad. Well, the two veteran actors play the parts well and Jennifer Lopez is solid in her role as well. The problem for the actors is the story which is so boring and predictable as to be one notch above torture. The plot is spoon fed to the viewer revealing the scope of the story very early in the film. J- Lo as Jean is running away with her daughter from her abusive boyfriend to Einar's (Redford) ranch. Einar's son was killed in an accident in a car that Jean was driving. Freeman as Mitch is Einar's long time ranch hand who has been disabled by a bear mauling while Einar was drunk and unable to save Mitch from the attack. From there the film is about forgiveness. Will Einar forgive Jean? Will Mitch forgive Einar? Will Mitch forgive the bear? If you are still awake as the film progresses the the plot unwinds the story drags on it is very predictable, boring, and slow to the point of comatose. I bet you can guess the rest of this. J-Lo finds a job as waitress in a small town greasy spoon. A new love interest of course and the bad boyfriend comes back and Mitch visits the bear and on and on. It's not like I just don't like this type of story or film. I loved Nobody's Fool with Paul Newman. This has none of the charm, humor, or appeal of that film.I was in the hospital when I saw this film on cable. The doctor came in to explain to me the anesthesia and what to expect and when I'd wake from it and so forth. I thought to myself I don't need it, just leave this movie on I'll be unconscious for hours.

Its a story about forgiveness. Its about how Einar (Redford) tries to forgive his daughter-in-law Jean (Jennifer Lopez). The story happens in a hillside village where a bear that hit Einar's close friend Mitch (Morgan Freeman) once and wounded him badly. All these have something intertwined between them. Fate. Forgiveness.I liked this movie's tone. It is not compelling anything to the audience. No overdone or dramatized emotions. No tear-filling performances. But different ones. Simple family emotions. To this simple story this gives a feeling that 'nothing happened' at all. But that's what life is for most of us. Nothing happened but everything is changed thereafter.Morgan Freeman (e.g. moments before the bear),Robert Redford, Becca Gardner, Jennifer Lopez.. sorted order of likable performances. If you liked the Director's earlier movies then there is a good chance that you would like this movie. I liked the director's narration style. Its a very under-toned style. That makes it impossible to forget the characters for me. For you ? Watch and find out.

Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez. Each one is the owner of a specific perspective or a perspective appeal which everybody will expect them to perform. Except for Lopez, the other two are perfectly convinced of the importance to the whole world that someone like them exist. At least as actors. So, if this premises make the creation of a film with this mixture something quite hard to achieve, join Lasse Hallström to the group. For what i've seen, he did fairly well in Chocolate, because the group of actors was good (Depp and Binoche, Molina and Dench). Predictably he wouldn't do anything worthwhile here. Confirmed.Start with the script. It just moves the necessary stones to make what Redford and Freeman need in the first place. The first one recovers his character from 'Out of Africa', free spirit, detached from the conventions of the ordinary world, trying to live a free life, and paying the price of unhappy and ultimately undesired loneliness. Freeman recovers his only character. The 'i'm always right' guy. The man of the words, incredible how he made a career out of delivering the same kind of insipid thinking over and over again, without any tone change. Some good actors started doing it in the curse of the career (Hopkins, sometimes Nicholson), but this one did it all the time. Jennifer Lopez plays along, she's more honest in her integration here than the other two, at least she doesn't take personal egos into it.Also the base problem of stories of good and evil. This case we have the also common variant of good, yet deviated people. Lopez and Redford's characters have a dark event in their common past that separated them, but deep down they're good, very good people. This is established from the beginning. I mean, what's the point? Not even the potentially interesting connection with the wilderness of the spirit (the relation with the bear, and all the meanings that could flow from there) was well made. Well, there was also a role Freeman would have to perform.The landscapes were well chosen, it had potential, pity the sad story that was placed there.Side note: did the violent ex-boyfriend go back to town just to get beaten by Redford? Or was there some angle i missed? My opinion: 1/5http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com