CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 09/28/07

A Character-Filled Recipe

By peter clines

Feast of Love

Screenplay by Allison Burnett
Based off the novel The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

When his wife (Selma Blair) leaves him for another woman, coffee shop owner Bradley (Greg Kinnear) is left reeling and ends up trying to move on with Diana (Rahda Mitchell), who's been having an extended affair with David (Billy Burke). Meanwhile his java-jockey Oscar (Toby Hemmingway) is knocked head-over-heels by Chloe (Alexa Davlos) when she comes in looking for a job. And watching it all unfold is Harry (Morgan Freeman), a local professor on an extended sabbatical to deal with the death of his son. Feast of Love is several stories that keep crossing and interweaving, each showing love in small moments and simple actions that build on each other to become powerful relationships. The characters are solid and the dialogue is sharp, but what makes the screenplay by Allison Burnett (Autumn in New York) interesting is that it constantly defines these relationships not by their dizzying heights, but by the tragic lows and losses such powerful emotions can bring. This simple shift in perspective tinges every scene with darkness or foreshadowing, no matter how bright it may seem, yet oddly serves to lift the story and characters above the usual pretty people seeking love that populate most movies of this type. While it may not be the greatest date movie ever, Feast of Love is still powerful and romantic in its own way.

Feast of Love
MGM/United Artists
Rated R; 102 min.

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Peter Clines has had a lifelong love affair with the movies. He grew up in New England, where he studied English literature and education, and now lives and writes somewhere in Southern California. If anyone knows exactly where, he would appreciate a few hints.

Feast of Love courtesy MGM/United Artists

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