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Feast of lesbian love: Selma Blair and Stana Katic in a doomed affair.
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At a glance:
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| Radha Mitchell bares all. Never again, apparently. |
This was one of the earliest movies on a Malaysian screen that I watched and reviewed for my old work place and I still remember what a letdown it was. As appetisin as it sounded, the titular meal in
Feast Of Love (2007) was reduced within the hour from what must be a 5-course luncheon in the 2000 Charles Baxter book of the same name, to a quick set lunch; and further cheapened into a McDonald’s Value Meal by the credit roll. Inasmuch as romance is concerned, the failure of
Feast is even more surprisin when considerin that it was after all, an R-rated movie with plenty of nudity (though snipped) and top stars who never fail to engage an audience. In a Oregon tale of intertwinin love stories,
Morgan Freeman goes on another one of his "wise man" narratives, this time as a love counsellor for confused hearts – the highlights bein
Greg Kinnear (
Auto Focus, 2002) as a failure of a lover; and
Alexa Davalos (
The Mist, 2007) as a gypsy-like, pseudo-Bohemian in her doomed lesbo romance with a recoverin junkie; while also frontin his own veteran struggle against the fadin of feelings for his wife (
Jane Alexander) as an agein couple who had lost their son.
Bad news on the doorstep:
It's not that these relationships aren't interestin, for they are.
Rather, it offers neither real solutions nor ideological perspectives
that we haven’t seen before.
Greg Kinnear’s loser character finds
himself cheated on repeatedly, with no plausible reason as to why he is
compensated when he eventually is.
Alexa Davalos’ drifter character
discovers the need-is-love love-is-need maxim, with no plausible reason
as to why she ignores it. The worst is when
Radha Mitchell’s promiscuous
siren role is paraded with such glory (along with an overdose of skin)
without offerin any real meanin or depth to her contribution. The characters in
Feast Of Love are annoyingly moral-neutral, invitin dislike even before scepticism.This must go down as an ugly blemish in director
Robert Benton's CV, which includes classics such as
Superman (1978) and
Bonnie And Clyde (1967).
Perennial wonderment:
How does Ebert do it? He astutely points out that director
Robert Benton has made better movies about doomed
marriages (
Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979)
but this one has
no organic reality because it depends on three
artifices: (1) the clockwork success and failure of relationships, (2)
the need for
Morgan Freeman as a witness, (3) the lickety-split time span that
compresses the action so much it loses emotional weight.
I can't remember if I cried:
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Erika Marozsán's Hollywood debut. Poor girl.
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Extremely heartbreakin that Hungarian beauty
Erika Marozsán
(pic) waited almost 10 years since
Gloomy Sunday (1999) only to star in such a mediocre film for a Hollywood first –
and grossly under-utilised at that.
Most memorable line:
"There is a story about the Greek gods. They were bored, so they invented
human beings, but they were still bored, so they invented love. Then
they weren't bored any longer, so they decided to try love for
themselves. And finally they invented laughter, so they could stand it."
Watch out for:
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Radha Mitchell's nude scenes keep this movie relevant on DVD shelves today.
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Radha Mitchell's sex scenes. She's reportedly fully nude for the first time - though I distinctly remember seein her with
Ally Sheedy in some risque behaviour back in
High Art (1998)
. Also, it was reported that she'd never want to do it again after this movie
. Savour it while you can, boys
.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Pardonin the cuts (that might have changed this into a four star movie,
maybe), it's still puzzlin to see Morgan Freeman sweat so much over so
little. Everybody makes their lives more important than they are; and so
does the movie. Light-hearted films like Love, Actually (2003) had the humour at
least but Feast Of Love is slow with nowhere to go, makin
us wonder
even harder about the sex that we missed. On a Malaysian screen, this
turned out to be no feast at all. A silly snack, more like. The sort of
love we get here is
like GSC's caramel popcorn – easy to digest and just as easy to forget.★★
Bonus material:
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Where can I buy the matching black underwear Radha Mitchell wore in this movie?
The bra and panties set was more memorable than the movie!
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At a glance:
Talk about run-of-the-mill safe bets. Readin on the outset itself about how Matchbox Pictures' goals are to "utilize the assets that Canada has to
offer to make commercially viable entertainment appropriate for a target
audience with a main focus on low risk - high return genre pictures" almost exonerates the film as yet another horror runabout with the usual paranormal possession flim-flam. To be fair, Devil Seed is very accomplished, if not derivative and unremarkable, shot with the Red One camera on a reported budget of just CAD 250,000. So no surprise it scored enough distributor deals to get our attention. With token nudity, competent SFX, suitable sound design and several impressive set-pieces, you wouldn't begrudge the rental fee if you're givin this a go tonight on Netflix or AppleTV.
Bad news on the doorstep:
We can go a little light on it since it's a maiden project, but lead Michelle Argyris is unfortunately a self-conscious actress with limited range, who might have done better here as a reserved brunette like co-star Shantelle Canzanese instead of a scowlin sexpot. The busty blonde bitch played by Vanessa Broze brought more to the table and maybe they should've swapped places. Hell, even the cameo by fitness model Sabrina D'Amour at the end made me think that she could've lent some Meg Foster appeal as the lead. The ones who definitely stuck out like sore thumbs are Wayne Conroy as the professor and Michael G. Wilmot as the Catholic priest. They looked like they just walked in on set.
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