My Synopsis: An alcoholic, wheelchair
bound once successful writer named Monte (played by Morgan Freeman) who has
written many western novels in the past has come to some sort of writers block
and in the hope of bringing back his creativity and flare he agrees to
housesits for his nephew Henrys’ (Kenan Thompson) friend Dog Dave at a lakeside
cabin for the summer in the charming Belle Isle. There he meets his neighbour a
single mother with three girls. This family inadvertently shows him a different
perspective to living, loving and in due course helps him find his inspiration
again, thus forming a great friendship with the family.
Director: Rob Reiner
Producer(s): Salli Newman, David Valdes,
Rob Reiner, Alan Greisman, Lori McCreary
Writer: Rob Reiner, Guy Thomas, Andrew Scheinman
Stars: Morgan Freeman, Virginia
Madsen, Emma Fuhrmann, Madeline Carroll, Fred Willard, Kenan Thompson,
Nicolette Pierini, CJ Wilson, Ash Christian, Debargo Sanyal, Jessica Hecht,
Christopher McCann, Kevin Pollak, Robert Boyd Holbrook, Lucas Caleb Rooney,
Kevin Pollack
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Morgan Freeman
plays a cowboy hat wearing writer, Monte Wildhorn, who is in the midst of a writer’s
block. Montes’ nephew has a friend, Dog
Dave, who has a house and dog in Belle Isle that needs looking after for the
summer. Monte is an ornery old man who comes into house and dog sitting
half-heartedly. His nephew, Henry, thinks Belle Isle would be the perfect place
to inspire Monte to write again. Monte thinks it would be the perfect place to
drink the summer away despite his faithful old typewriter accompanying him,
from which many of his best stories were born. Monte still insists that the
trusty sour mash whiskey will be his only companion. Throughout the movie we are
also made aware of a persistent editor named Joe Viola (Kevin Pollak) whom
Monte is successfully avoiding. His solitary attitude stems firstly from meeting
with an unfortunate car accident involving a drunk driver which left him wheelchair
bound and his wifes’ untimely death only a few years back. His lack of
enthusiasm when he first arrives to Belle Isle dissolves very quickly when he
meets Mrs O’Neill (Virginia Madsen) the beautiful single mother and her lovely
girls, Willow (Madeline Carroll), Finnegan (aka Finn played Emma Fuhrmann) and
Flora (Nicolette Pierini). Willow, the oldest girl, is noticeably affected by
her parents’ relationship breakdown and tends to have a very unfavourable attitude
towards her mother and has a huge confidence that her father will come get them
soon and take them back to their New York lifestyle. She has the most stand
offish persona of the three sisters but this slowly dissolves as the movie
progresses.
Montes first of
many encounters is with the dog of the house, Ringo. He decides to name him Spot
because Ringo isn’t a fitting name for a dog. Though it is a one way
conversation between these two, the little chats Monte has with Spot throughout
the movie is quite delightful. Carl (Ash Christian), the bunny hopping special
needs boy from down the road, quietly brings out the fatherly side to Monte. This
is highlighted superbly by Montes’ first interaction with Carl, an interaction
that endears Morgan Freeman’s character to you even more. Then we have the fearless,
persistent and clever Finn who loves to write but isn’t quite sure what
imagination is all about, she asks Monty to help her find where stories comes
from, and to be somewhat of a mentor, and she insists on paying him to teach her.
Monte accepts this offer to his terms and conditions of course, consequently Finns
and Montes ‘professional’ relationship grows in leaps and bounds from this
moment.
As Monte settles
into his new residence for the summer a dinner invitation is extended to him by
Mrs O’Neil to which he accepts. That evening was full of great conversations,
and musical expression. You’re not quite sure if it was that night at dinner
when Mrs O’Neill played a classical piece of music on her piano or it was that little something that was mentioned at
the dinner table by the youngest member of the O’Neil family, nonetheless, whatever
it was it certainly did re- ignite something in Monte. From that night came a very
special gift for Flora on her birthday in the coming weeks. The gift not only
left an impression on Flora but also her mum.
The relationship
that forms between Mrs O’Neill and Monte from that night at dinner purely shows
as platonic in the main story but is very different in their imagination. Mrs
O’Neill alluring nature inspires Monte to imagine, creative write and produce
some fine pieces of work which entertains the likes of Flora but the undertones
within his writing shows Mrs O’Neill another side to Montes message.
In the next scene
you see Monte typing away on his old but faithful typewriter enjoying a moment
of clarity, its night time and he is enjoying the soft classical music coming
across from Mrs O’Neill house, until Joe decided to make a surprise appearance on
Montes doorstep. The visit didn’t bother Monte so much because he knew sooner
or later Joe would catch up to him. But it wasn’t until Joe mentioned he
brought along someone, someone that could potentially help alleviate Montes’ financially
situation that actually put the thought in the back of his mind. The visitor wanted
to acquire the rights to one of his famous western novels. The rights would
allow Montes novel to become a big budget movie and potentially make Monte a
rich man. Monte though, is happy with
his situation and for the moment declines the initial offer. With that said and
their quick exit Monte goes back to listening to Mrs O’Neill playing the piano
and enjoying the rest of his night.
In the following
scenes you see Mrs O’Neill walking to Montes house in the early morning asking
him a favour, to look after the girls for the day while she is in the city
finalising some paperwork. Monte is hesitant but accepts the challenge. There
are some great moments that take place between the girls and Monte, from supervising
their swim at the lake, his chat with Finn, the girls teaching Monte how to use
a mobile phone, and at the end of the day all three ending up staying the night
at Monte place.
In the final weeks leading
up to Montes departure from Belly Isle he realises the things he was so
depended on before aren’t so much of a dependence now. As he says his goodbye to
all his favourites, Carl the young side-sick, Spot his faithful companion and
Mrs O’Neill and her daughters he feels the loss of leaving all of Belle Isle
behind.
Over the next few
months as life moves forward the house that Monte stayed in for the summer remains
vacant. Mrs O’Neill and Monte exchange a few text messages and emails, the
girls become a lot closer to their mum and the pumpkins Willow and her mum
planted months back are getting bigger for Halloween. The final message sent to
Mrs O’Neill from Monte is a great end to the movie even though it was a little
predicable, it still doesn’t take away from the story and the story’s ending.
MY REVIEW:
Morgan Freemans’ character seems to have just the right thing to say at the right time, from his conversation with his dog Spot to his conversations with Mrs O’Neill. His voice is so smooth and pitch perfect, it so great to listen too. My partner says ‘he can read to me anytime’ (slight worry I must say) but I will admit he does have some truth to that. You will understand what I mean when you watch this movie. He plays his characters brilliantly, only Mr Freeman can take a character that is so reclusive and make him into such a wonderful and lovable man.
I thought all the characters were great in this movie. Virginia Madsen who played Mrs O’Neill played the nurturing, caring and understated attractive single mother really well. Emma Fuhrmann quirkiness in the movie was delightful, she had great facial expressions and it was just really charming to see her and Morgan Freeman characters interact with one another.
It’s a light hearted movie, nothing dramatic nothing too over the top. I really enjoyed this movie!! I hope you enjoy it too.
Regards, S
Regards, S
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