Hot Lesbians, Adorable Guys, and Sad Old People?

So I wouldn’t normally do this, but I feel compelled to post about “Feast of Love”. I am generally unqualified to review movies, since I like almost every movie I see. I believe in taking a movie for what it is, not what it could be. If it is supposed to be a gross comedy than it should be judged accordingly ( a la Superbad!!!). Feast of Love looked from the preview to be somewhere between a romantic comedy for adults and a character drama. And it was ( just add a lot of nudity).

The acting was excellent. Selma Blair was like a petulant child and very believable. Greg Kinnear was endearing although annoyingly naive. Morgan Freeman was fantastic (as to be expected). Both Toby Hemingway and Alexa Davalos were intense and somewhat creepy, but you bought that they were in love. The story was decent. There were tons of ups and downs keeping your heart on the edge the whole time. Some parts were melodramatic to an extreme degree. They probably could have left out a couple parts, particularly a man named Bat. The plot outline from IMDB says it best:

“A meditation on love and its various incarnations, set within a community of friends in Oregon. An exploration of the magical, mysterious and sometimes painful incarnations of love.”

I liked it and would recommend it to pretty much anyone with a heart. Although I hate sad movies, and this had its fair share of sad moments, the overriding theme was love. It was somewhat unconventional in its willingness to show the often intensely painful side of love. There are tons of movies where people meet and overcome some initial difficulty to walk away into the sunset together. There are only a few movies that show the reality of love. That love can be unpredictable, awkward at times, unreciprocated at others, painful, and intensely scary. But that it is also an absolutely necessary part of our world. It is the part that makes us human, and we are all better people because of it.

Some critics liked it, some hated it. Personally I think the negative reviews are somewhat pretentious. They complain that the movie tries too hard and that Morgan Freeman is playing the character he always plays. He plays that role, because he is good at it. And why shouldn’t a movie try hard, it attempts to show you the bigger picture with love. Yes at times it fails, but most of the movies out don’t even strive to portray real love. Besides how can a movie not be good if early on Morgan Freeman’s soothing voice says:

“They say that when the Greek gods were bored, they invented humans. Still bored, they invented love. That wasn’t boring, so they tried it themselves. And then they invented laughter — so they could stand it.”