Feast of Love

Writer Allison Burnett and director Robert Benton (from Charles Baxter’s novel) examine the romantic ups and downs of a group of characters – an older couple (Morgan Freeman, Jane Alexander) coping with the death of their son, a neighbor (Greg Kinnear) who sees two marriages blow up in his face, and the neighbor’s employee (Toby Hemingway) who falls in love-at-first-sight with a co-worker (Alexa Davalos). At first Burnett and Benton seem to skim the surface in shallow shorthand hops, but gradually we sense them getting under the skin of these people (including Selma Blair and Radha Mitchell as Kinnear’s wives, and Stana Katic and Billy Burke as their respective lovers), and the movie grows sweetly affecting. There’s an over-reliance on narration, but when the narrator is Morgan Freeman, who can complain?