Feast of Love 2007

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It's like Friends without the funny. Oh, wait -- that's redundant. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: This feast is more like an artfully arranged appetizer plate. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a worthy effort, even as it does fall short; a good meal but hardly a feast. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: This heart-warmer by Robert Benton has some of the tender wisdom and humor of his other features. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: At one point he tells a love-struck friend, 'I think I'd proceed with caution.' I'd proceed just as cautiously to the movie. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: It seems destined to find an indulgent second home as an unusually classy slot-plugger over at Lifetime. Read more

Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: Pretentious and precious. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Feast of Love is [Benton's] easiest movie to like since 1994's Nobody's Fool, and it's immediately homey. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: The script weaves three interlocking stories in unlikely ways and relies on random acts of violence, fate and God for dramatic complications that the characters aren't fleshed-out enough to whip up on their own. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Director Robert Benton and screenwriter Allison Burnett tell a sobering, adult-geared tale of love's highs, lows and maddening twists and turns. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The fine cast, which includes Jane Alexander, Selma Blair, and Radha Mitchell, is also somewhat underused. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: A bit too involved and convenient at times, but still classy and heartfelt all the way. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Feast of Love, Robert Benton's bobos-in-love ensemble drama, adapted from the Charles Baxter college-town novel, is far too cloyingly pleased with its own humanity. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Feast of Love the movie is less specific than The Feast of Love the book, but it has its heart in the right place -- that longing place. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Feast of Love isn't an altogether satisfying banquet, but you settle for whatever looks good on the plate. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: What's promised to be a feast ends up as only a wan TV dinner. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: A would-be-wistful dramedy that's almost insufferably full of itself. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: All the couples have palpable chemistry, and Kinnear and Freeman seem so convinced they're in a respectable movie that they actually make it one. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: You can see better stuff on TV any night of the week. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: An exquisite tapestry of interlocking love stories, some of which end happily, some sadly, some farcically and one quite tragically. Throughout all the shifting moods, no single narrative disrupts the well-paced flow of the film as a coherent whole. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: [Director] Benton has a gift for casting, even if it is "on the nose" (actors almost too perfect for the part). Kinnear is at his most endearing, and Freeman, shorn of his flintiness, has never been sweeter. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: As a meditation on the vicissitudes of love, on the need for people to connect, and the struggles that come by both making and missing those connections, the movie is wading-pool deep. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The screenplay combines philosophy, melodrama, and cliches to engaging effect. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Benton has made better movies about doomed marriages (Kramer vs. Kramer), but this one has no organic reality. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: There's a people-are-good feeling permeating the film, which is difficult to resist. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: There's an occasional scene that works -- a funny sequence where Bradley bargains for his dog with a kid -- but as the movie progresses, the melodrama is piled on with a bulldozer. Read more

Susan Walker, Toronto Star: Director Robert Benton finds an emotional through line in a format that might have easily broken down into a series of disconnected anecdotes with little to nourish us. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Multiple narratives are fluidly interwoven and the writing is often inspired, resulting in dialogue that feels honest and insightful, if occasionally mannered. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Given the potentially unwieldy nature of the enterprise, [director] Benton juggles the multiple narratives with considerable grace, and succeeds in creating a warm (if somewhat improbable) sense of community among the principal characters. Read more

Julia Wallace, Village Voice: For a film that purports to be an epic consideration of Love in Our Time, Feast is strikingly unthoughtful and uninterested in any but the most obvious kind of romantic love. Read more