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When a single mom tells her daughter, after a fight with her boyfriend, that they’re going to Wyoming, "that’s where your grandfather lives," the little girl retorts, "I have a grandfather?" But that’s not the only surprise in An Unfinished Life, a warm, somewhat complex story of life and its layers of misunderstandings narrated simply and sensitively against the backdrop of the old Wild West. Jean Gilkyson (Jennifer Lopez) is the mother and Griff (Becca Gardner), her cute 10-year-old. What we come to know later is that Jean is blamed for her husband’s death (in a car accident) and is therefore alienated from her father-in-law Einar (Robert Redford), who owns a ranch in that picturesque nick of the United States. It is not going to be a happy reunion but that’s what the film is all about. Director Lasse Hallstorm of Chocolate fame weaves an absorbing story of the misconceptions that have to be ironed out in what we call human relations. That Jean goes through a series of boyfriends, some violent, does not exactly make life liveable for her daughter. Then the crusty old rancher Einar has to forget the past and live in the present. That’s what his ranch-hand Mitch (Morgan Freeman) tells him but he seems to pay no heed to him though he nurses him well after a bear has mauled him. So, there are a number of issues so the story is imbued with variety but the treatment is European, the pace halting and there are also layers of humour like the little girl suspecting her grandpa and Mitch are gays. It also sheds light on the generation gap. As for the Wild West, it is merely a locale with the bear providing rather contrived dramatic relief. It is more cerebral or social, shades of Peter Fonda’s Western A Hired Hand in the 1970s. It is 107 minutes of endearing entertainment that also demolishes some clich`E9s connected with the Western. The rancher and his ranch-hand are on a totally different and very human relationship and the damage control regarding the misconceptions is as effective as it is convincing. That Hallstorm has the benefit of veterans also helps. Redford and Morgan are expectedly competent and Jennifer Lopez or J. Lo as she is often referred to, is somewhat restrained. Little Becca Gardner makes a promising debut but it is the subject matter and the lush outdoors that make for ideal, off-the-beaten-track entertainment. Well worth a dekko.
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