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Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander show love in graceful, aging form.  Greg Kinnear and his many wives (and divorces) show love that is blind, period.  Alexa Davalos and Toby Hemingway show love in youth.  Such are the storylines of Feast of Love, a film that meanders through houses, backyards, businesses, affairs and a coffee shop. It seems as though “Sleepless in Seattle” is alive again.

Morgan Freeman narrates the storyline from his seat at Greg Kinnear’s coffee shop. Toby Hemingway works there, but has eyes for Alexa Davalos and soon she is working there, too. Greg is married, but his wife has a secret and eventually they divorce. Greg meets real estate lady Radma Mitchell at his coffee shop, looks at a house and ends up marrying her, not knowing she has a secret, too. By this time, you can figure out that Greg needs a reality check about his choices in women. Morgan is married to Jane Alexander and they live next door to Greg’s new house, but Morgan and Jane also have a secret. All these secrets and the only one out in the open is Toby’s Dad, Fred Ward, who is called “Bat.” Needless to say, he IS batty.

The story meanders through the first 50 minutes and you start checking your watch, until the people who are married and in affairs start to pull themselves together. Who are they really meant to be with? How can they extradite themselves and achieve some form of happiness? The last 50 minutes becomes interesting as there is emotional baggage, emotional wreckage, plenty of sex and lots of coffee in this suburb. Unfortunately, Stephen Trask’s soundtrack---with the exception of music from the film “Once”---is loud and obtrusive.

Acting by Morgan Freeman is finely wrought and he has a sadness in his eyes that is echoed in the eyes of his wife, Jane Alexander. Here is acting without histrionics. Greg Kinnear looks sad, too, but his sadness is tempered with a bit of humor as we see him locking himself into marriages without thinking things through. The word “impulsive” is not in his vocabulary. Wife two, Radma Mitchell, seems so shell-shocked she goes through life like a mannequin with one cigarette after another. This woman doesn’t crack a smile. Alexa Davalos and Toby Hemingway come on like two teens in a TV sitcom until Toby’s Dad, Bat comes into the picture. Then, Alexa’s acting chops come to the forefront and we see the choices she has to make.

I could barely make it through the first half of Feast of Love, but got interested in the last half. An unusual array of people of two generations is in or out of love and this affects people around them. Greg, as owner of his coffee shop, Morgan as a teacher on sabbatical, and Toby as a young man just starting out in life. Their decisions go out like ripples in a lake. I’m glad I stayed with it.

Copyright 2007 Marie Asner