 Movie Review:
An Unfinished Life
Production Company : Miramax
Director : Lasse Hallström
Principals : Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, Morgan Freeman
Rating : PG-13 (mild language and violence)
By Gregg Tubbs
(UMC.org)—The new drama, An Unfinished Life, is set in the high-country of a remote Wyoming ranch. But it also transports us to the high-country of the soul—an inner place that is stark and lonely, where people hide their hurt behind cowboy stoicism and mountains of reserve. In this quiet and thoughtful drama we meet the emotional hermits of these mountains and slowly uncover the secrets, pain and regret that trap them in self-made emotional cages. On the outside are bears, real and spiritual, that patrol the landscape and challenge them to confront their unfinished lives.
Einar (Robert Redford) shares his crumbling ranch with Mitch (Morgan Freeman), a long-time friend left crippled by a bear attack. Copyright © 2005 Miramax Films |
Director Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules) specializes in making films about dysfunctional groups that evolve into makeshift families. With An Unfinished Life, he’s in familiar territory and surrounded by a stellar cast. Robert Redford, looking finally and comfortably grizzled, plays Wyoming rancher, Einar Gilkyson, whose own life seems to have stopped after the accidental death of his only child, Griffin. Einer shares his crumbling ranch with Mitch Bradley (Morgan Freeman), a ranch hand and long time friend, who years earlier was left crippled after being severely mauled by a grizzly bear.
The two men pace out their days in a listless surrender to entropy—winding down emotionally as their ranch goes to pieces around them. Without his son to help on the ranch, Einar has sold off all his cattle, except for a lone milk cow, so that he and Mitch can keep the land. This is a portrait of two lives put on hold. Rarely venturing out and never welcoming anyone in, they are two wounded souls simply waiting for the end.
Their moribund routine is unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of Einar’s estranged daughter-in-law, Jean (Jennifer Lopez)—Griffin’s widow—and a granddaughter he never knew he had. Einar is anything but welcoming to the two; however, when he learns they are fleeing Jean’s abusive boyfriend, and that his new granddaughter is named Griff, after his late son, he begins to soften up. What follows is the difficult and sometimes acrimonious process of confessing, forgiving and healing that turns them all—including Mitch—into a sort of family.
Einar’s (Robert Redford) estranged daughter-in-law and his late son’s widow, Jean (Jennifer Lopez), arrives with the granddaughter (Becca Gardner) he didn’t know he had. Copyright © 2005 Miramax Films |
This is familiar territory for director Hallström, and at times An Unfinished Life resembles a predictable made-for-TV movie. But what it lacks in surprises, it makes up in many other ways. Redford’s quietly anguished performance is his best in years, and Morgan Freeman’s Mitch matches his Oscar-winning turn in Million Dollar Baby. The surprise here is Lopez, who holds her own against these old pros. The direction is elegant and gently poetic, eschewing flash and obtrusive technique to keep the focus on the characters that drive the story.
For me, the best thing about the movie was how the emotional states of Einar and Mitch are reflected in a series of symbolic elements. Their broken down truck and dilapidated ranch mirror their own abandoned lives. The vast, empty Wyoming landscapes echo their own lonely interiors. But best is the bear. As the film opens, we find that the bear that mauled Mitch has returned—rooting through garbage cans and startling the townsfolk. The bear tracks Einar discovers in his damp field jolt him with the reminder that there is unfinished business lurking in the shadows, foreshadowing the arrival of Jean and Griff that will end his years of avoidance and emotional cloister. The bear is an ongoing metaphor that they, and indeed all of us, may have unfinished business to contend with.
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| Einar (Robert Redford), Jean (Jennifer Lopez), and Mitch (Morgan Freeman) engage in the complex process of confession, forgiveness and healing that turns them into a family. Copyright © 2005 Miramax Films |
Your life can change in an instant,” Einar says. Whether it’s a tragic car accident, a surprise granddaughter or an angry bear, each of them must grapple with those sudden changes. They learn that they must all confront the “bears” in their lives. To do so, they learn to be honest about themselves, and with each other. Jean makes a painful confession about her role in her husband’s death, and Einar faces up to his part in Mitch’s mauling. But confession isn’t enough; they must learn to stop casting blame and forgive each other and themselves.
An Unfinished Life is not for everybody. Its leisurely pace and quietly unfolding human drama runs counter to Hollywood’s current frenetic style. But with the box office failure of so many recent big-budget action flicks, maybe the time is right for something different: great acting, beautiful cinematography and graceful direction, all serving a character-driven tale of redemption and forgiveness. Maybe it’s time for more films like An Unfinished Life.
Gregg Tubbs is a freelance writer living in Columbia, Md.
This review was developed by UMC.org, the official online ministry of The United Methodist Church.
Study Questions
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In what ways are the characters’ lives unfinished? Whose life was most unfinished in the film?
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Why did Einar want to kill the bear? Was he driven by guilt or the desire to protect people from it?
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What is the role of Mitch in the film? In what way does he function as a prophet? What do you make of his dreams?
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Jean initiates a relationship with the town’s sheriff, and Einar questions her motives. Did you share his suspicions?
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Was Jean right to abandon her abusive boyfriend? Should she have pursued counseling and tried to work it out, or did you agree with her decision?
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This film is heavily symbolic. What symbolic elements did you see? What did the truck mean to you? What about the bear? What about Mitch’s scars?
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Why did Mitch need to see the bear? Why did he want to set it free?
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Griff accused Jean of always making selfish decisions. Do you agree? Why or why not?
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At the end of the film, Mitch says he believes the dead forgive our sins. Do you agree?
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He also says everything happens for a reason. Do you agree with that?
Group Activities
Confront Your Bear: In An Unfinished Life, the bear symbolizes the unresolved issues in our lives. In this exercise, invite the members of your group to identify and confront the “bears” in their lives. Supply paper, scissors, drawing or painting supplies. Ask the members of your group to draw, cut out, paint or otherwise artistically create their own picture of a bear. Then ask them to reflect on their lives and consider the unresolved issues in their lives. Is it a relationship that needs mended? A habit that needs broken? Unresolved guilt? Someone who needs forgiven? Or even issues of faith? Ask them to choose one of these “bears” and commit to working to resolving it. Ask them to give their bear a name (which they can keep to themselves) that reminds them of what it stands for. They can either display their bears in your meeting space, or take them home to use as a reminders to confront their bears.
Chain of Forgiveness: Forgiveness is a major theme in An Unfinished Life. In Matthew 18:20-22 the disciples ask Jesus how many times they should forgive someone: “As many as seven times?” (NRSV) Jesus replies, “Seventy-seven times” (NRSV). The point is that God’s forgiveness and mercy are vast, as ours should be. To illustrate this point, have your group construct two paper clip chains representing forgiveness. For this activity, you will need several boxes of paperclips (colored clips would work well). First, ask a volunteer to take seven paperclips and link them together into a short chain, representing how often Peter suggested we forgive. Ask her or him to hold it up. Next, distribute paperclips among the group. Ask each person to make several small chains of seven. After a few minutes, link the individual chains together into one long chain. It doesn’t matter if you hit seventy-seven, or seven-times-seven. The point is to illustrate visually and concretely the depth and breadth of Jesus’ concept of forgiveness in comparison to ours by laying out the two chains side by side. Discuss why we find it so difficult to forgive and therefore want to put limits on it. What are some of the barriers that prevent us from forgiving one another? What enables us to overcome these barriers?
Role of Confession : To begin healing their relationship, Jean and Einar both had to confess a past transgression that filled them with guilt and self-loathing. As a group, discuss this critical scene and how it marked a turning point in the film. Then discuss the important role confession of sins plays in healing the relationship between God and humanity. Key Bible passages include: Proverbs 28:13, James 5:16 and 1 John 1:9.
Resources
Official An Unfinished Life Web site
Theatrical Trailer
QuickTime
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