lisaviolet's diary

The second we've seen compliments of AARP's Movies for Grownups.

If you haven't seen the trailer, here it is.

As much as I didn't like last week's Her, I loved this one. I freaking ed it all over the place. Seriously.

What a great love story, well told. Kept us on the edge of our seats. At one point I told Mr Dramatic next to me to please stop. (He starts anticipating what's to come and it can be distracting - he repeats "nonono" and covers his face and sighs, I swear he does all of this.)

It's a coming of age story of young Henry (Gattlin Griffith), being the man of the house and having a deep emotional bond with his mother, Adele (Kate Winslet). His father had left years before. Henry tried so very hard to make her happy, but he always fell short. Frank (Josh Brolin), was in prison for murder and had escaped from the hospital after surgery for appendicitis. Frank's plan was to catch a train out of town. But it was Labor Day and the trains weren't running. He spent the weekend with Adele and Henry.

You don't know why Henry's father left, what was wrong with the marriage, you don't know the whole story behind Frank's incarceration. This information is slowly fed to you in flashbacks, just little snippets to begin with, but they get longer as the story progresses. By the end of the story, you know it all (although I do have a question or two, but maybe they weren't meant to be answered).

What you do see is a wonderful love story. No sex, very few expletives (you could take your parents or grandparents to this film without any embarrassment ), no violence to speak of.

I liked all of the characters, they were very easy to empathize with. I felt this movie.

Highly recommended. Brian won't watch it again (he says) because it was a deeply moving movie and he doesn't like to be deeply moved (he'll never watch Lonesome Dove again and that was hands down the best mini-series ever). But I'll watch it again. And again.

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Friday, January 17, 2014