Feast of Love
2.9 Stars

MGM 102mins R
Directed by
Robert Benton

Love stinks! Aged director Robert Benton has done a wistful ensemble piece on the pain and pleasures of the emotion in question.

Harry Stevenson  (Morgan Freeman) is a retired professor living somewhere in Oregon with his wife of many years Esther (Jane Alexander), and one night goes out for a walk. This for some inexpicable reason leads to a flashback.

Harry is friends with Bradley (Greg Kinnear), who is married to
Kathryn (Selma Blair), who as we meet them is about to turn gay as athletic and vivacious Jenny (Stana Katic) sticks her tongue in Kat's ear. Thus ends Brad's first marriage.

Then he falls in love with Diana (Radha Mitchell), who's having a torrid affair with David (Billy Burke) even after she accepts Brad's marriage proposal. And what about Oscar (Toby Hemingway) and Chloe (Alexa Davalos)? How do they and his father Bat (Fred Ward) fit in?

As you can see, this is a film about pretty much nothing. A romantic comedy with just enough jokes to keep it from getting boring, and excellent acting to make up for bare spots in-between the soapish melodrama and jokes. This is for the older crowd, a work of philosophy more than anything else. Worth a place on the Netflix cue. Good but not great.

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