This is a feel good movie if ever I had to describe one. Yep, it will leave you with a warm and fuzzy feeling at the end and might even make you more cordial towards others for a day or so. If this sounds way different than other reviews of this movie, it's not because I'm being cynical or trying to be funny; I'm not. This movie type requires a building of good feeling followed by a sudden very sad tragic event so that the redeeming third phase can effectively lift your spirit through a positive 'good can come from bad situation'; it's classic and it's a tried and true formula.
The movie is as close to a fairytale as a definitively not fairytale can be. Connie Nielsen is the best looking adoptive mother you'll ever see and plays an ideal loving wife. I was envious of Aidan Quinn who plays Nielsen's husband, but only for a while because, hey, it's just a movie. So you get that Nielsen is charming as hell. Read the storyline and you'll get an idea of what you can potentially be watching, assuming you haven't yet seen the flick. Luckily, Nielsen's character dies before the abundance of sweetness she spreads turns you into a diabetic. Yea, that bit is a little cynical and perhaps funny to some. Don't get me wrong, I love Nielsen as an overly optimist character because it's just what the young boy she's adopted needed, unfortunately it renders the middle of the movie utterly predictable; as previously commented, she dies. This may sound odd but her heart of gold character in this movie made me have a flashback moment to another character, very nice contrast, she played in "Devil's Advocate". Sorry about that; I write it like I feel it.
The end of the movie is pretty much predictable but you'll watch it anyway to see Quinn's smile one time before the credits start rolling; the true reason you will is because you will have come to the realisation, by then, that it's a good movie well acted. The part of the movie that, to me, makes it stand out from other movies with more or less similar story lines is that the adoptive boy, very well played by John Bell, deals with the death of his adoptive mom not like what movies are suppose to show but like the character would react if he was real. That grieving period for the boy is not a quickie scene or two but full part of the movie; it is at the core of the movie's message and it required Bell to do some acting you won't see too many actors his age deliver (best I've seen). If you need to get back in the good graces of your wife or girlfriend, or if you just need a girlfriend to warm up to you a little by showing your sensitive side, bring her to see this movie or rent it for the occasion; telling her it was depressing or boring would be a very bad idea. Resist speaking; take out the tissues and snuggle up close.
The movie is as close to a fairytale as a definitively not fairytale can be. Connie Nielsen is the best looking adoptive mother you'll ever see and plays an ideal loving wife. I was envious of Aidan Quinn who plays Nielsen's husband, but only for a while because, hey, it's just a movie. So you get that Nielsen is charming as hell. Read the storyline and you'll get an idea of what you can potentially be watching, assuming you haven't yet seen the flick. Luckily, Nielsen's character dies before the abundance of sweetness she spreads turns you into a diabetic. Yea, that bit is a little cynical and perhaps funny to some. Don't get me wrong, I love Nielsen as an overly optimist character because it's just what the young boy she's adopted needed, unfortunately it renders the middle of the movie utterly predictable; as previously commented, she dies. This may sound odd but her heart of gold character in this movie made me have a flashback moment to another character, very nice contrast, she played in "Devil's Advocate". Sorry about that; I write it like I feel it.
The end of the movie is pretty much predictable but you'll watch it anyway to see Quinn's smile one time before the credits start rolling; the true reason you will is because you will have come to the realisation, by then, that it's a good movie well acted. The part of the movie that, to me, makes it stand out from other movies with more or less similar story lines is that the adoptive boy, very well played by John Bell, deals with the death of his adoptive mom not like what movies are suppose to show but like the character would react if he was real. That grieving period for the boy is not a quickie scene or two but full part of the movie; it is at the core of the movie's message and it required Bell to do some acting you won't see too many actors his age deliver (best I've seen). If you need to get back in the good graces of your wife or girlfriend, or if you just need a girlfriend to warm up to you a little by showing your sensitive side, bring her to see this movie or rent it for the occasion; telling her it was depressing or boring would be a very bad idea. Resist speaking; take out the tissues and snuggle up close.