As by-the-book as it is occasionally sweeping, An
Unfinished Life showcases the kind of earnest western
melodramatic qualities that are usually reserved for films about gay
cowboys. I suppose the key might be to have directors from far-away
places make their magic with traditionally “American”
source material; Oscar-winner Ang Lee hails from Taiwan; Lasse
Hallstrom, director of An Unfinished Life, hails from Sweden.
Without having any nationalistic ties to any palpable sort of
Americana or personal heritage, these directors are able to turn
simple scripts into moving thought-pieces on what the “American
cowboy” is doing now that the 21st century has reared its ugly
head.This might be a naive and unsupported hypothesis, but
for this writer, the only thing that keeps An Unfinished Life
from completely faltering under its own reticent westernism is
Hallstrom’s steady hand. The My Life as a Dog auteur
has never quite delivered a full-fledged masterwork (though his
Pelle the Conqueror comes damned close), but in films as
varied as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? and The
Cider House Rules, he has shown his ability to not necessarily
tap into a discernible American ethos, but use his outsider point of
view to shed light on aspects of Americana that most of us Yankees
take for granted.
My other hypothesis with An
Unfinished Life surrounds the idea that Hallstrom is far more
interested in playing with the idea of American celebrity than he is
with telling a straightforward story. The plot of An Unfinished
Life follows a very McMurtry-melodrama line. An old farmer
(Robert Redford) whose son died in a car crash years before is
approached by the daughter-in-law (Jennifer Lopez) he rejected upon
his son’s demise. She needs a place for her and her son
(his grandson) to stay. It’s a story about letting grudges go,
of the kind of compromises and fits and starts we all make in order to
let life go on after tragedy strikes. It’s like Terms of
Endearment, only with a ranch instead of the suburbs as its
dramatic arena.
And with Redford’s sole confidant
being the inimitable Morgan Freeman (who does supporting duties quite
well here), it’s easy to smell that An Unfinished Life
is the kind of big-name Oscar-bait project that companies owned by the
Weinstein brothers dream about. But what gives the film a
surprising kick – and also eliminates its potential to really
reach out and connect with an audience in a mass-appeal fashion
– is that Hallstrom seems to want to use these big-named actors
to prove that the old-fashioned America we see in movies like this one
really is dead.
I mean, come on – Jennifer Lopez as a
struggling single mother trying to appeal to the godfather of
“independent” cinema while riffing off of America’s
favorite, most lovable advice-giver? It’s like a Lifetime movie
gone horrifically wrong. These actors (with the exception of Lopez
– sorry, J. Lo) all have chops aplenty. But whether it’s
the actors’ interpretations of the source material or
Hallstrom’s desire to have the actors ham it up as he makes a
point that modern mega-stars simply can’t pull off this kind of
cinematic magic any more, An Unfinished Life ends up being
intellectually and emotionally icy in really unrewarding ways.
Call it a failure to try to either recapture or stick the
stake through the heart of the modern American western, but An
Unfinished Life fails in almost every filmic regard (one might
have expected that from the film’s anemic box-office returns).
So unless you’re the kind of viewer who has enough faith in
Jenny from the block to buy her as a down-on-her-luck farm girl, it
might be a good idea to leave this particular Life
unfinished.
The Video: How Does The Disc Look?
As uneven as the film might be, An Unfinished
Life looks damned gorgeous on this 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen
transfer. Color contrast is exceptionally powerful and well-defined,
black levels are rock-solid throughout the entire picture, and finely
grained detail is wonderfully clear. There’s little to no
muddiness on this transfer at all. The transfer print is also free of
blemishes or dirt. Marvelous.
The Audio: How Does
The Disc Sound?The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix for
An Unfinished Life is simple, but that doesn’t mean it
isn’t finessed and quite lovely. Dialogue has been recorded and
placed in the mix impeccably, atmospherics are given a nice roundness
and are distributed lushly among the surround channels, and sound
effects are firm and nice-sounding without being over-the-top. The
film’s musical score is also unassuming and effective. A really
nice, simple mix.
Also included are a French Surround
track, Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?The
screen-specific audio commentary by Hallstrom,
producer Leslie Holleran, and editor Andrew Mondshein is revealing,
though often quite dull. More like a lecture than an informal
discussion, the track goes into the themes and symbols within the
film, but doesn’t really shed much light on the rigors behind
the film’s production.
The first of two
featurettes, The Making of an Unfinished
Life, is underwhelming. Although the second, Training Bart
the Bear, is slightly more intriguing. Rounding out this DVD
edition is a run-of-the-mill still gallery.
Final Thoughts
It’s a dull film,
but one with an occasional glimpse of unique insight. An
Unfinished Life is a deeply flawed work, but with glorious audio
and video quality on this DVD and a handful of extras, for
Hallstrom’s fans it’ll make a gorgeous rental.
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