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Sep 25, 2008Michael rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
Ok, I wasn't going to do a review on this movie - but I have to correct an omission. Sometimes you want to keep a flick that peeps were ho-hum about - all to yourself - and this is just that kind of film. It eases up to you slow-like, and before you know it... it captures your heart and runs away with it. And then I noticed something... In the "Performers" Section on OPL's title page - NOWHERE does it mention JENNIFER GARNER! Imagine that! Especially since - without Jennifer Garner, this moves drops straight into a sink-hole a mile long! Obviously, from having said that, you get the feeling that I think she's kinda special in this flick... and you would be right! Jennifer Garner IS really special in this film - because she's not being the Jennifer Garner we all know, say from "Alias", or "Daredevil" or "Electra" - not even "Pearl Harbor", "Dude, Where's My Car?" or "13 Going on 30", Maybe it all has to do with marrying her Daredevil co-star Ben Affleck and knowing she was pregnant with their first child (born Dec. 1, 2005) at the time the movie was being filmed (spring/summer 2005, in Vancouver & other parts of BC, made to look like Boulder Colorado where the story takes place). Whatever it was, she came across so glowing and self-assured but easy-going in this film, that I wondered at first if she had really captured what first-time director Susannah Grant, (who wrote the movie Erin Brockovich) had really wanted in her character Gray Wheeler. But the woman has star-power, for sure, because before long, she had me believing in that role: A woman grieving the death of her well-to-do fiance Grady, who died in an accident that happened during his bachelor party weekend. To make matter worse for her, she begins to discover things about her late fiance that makes her think she may not have known him that well, at all. Tensions that began with being forced to listen to Grady's best friend Fritz having sex with a waitress in a bathroom at the funeral for Grady, continue throughout the movie, giving it a secondary conflict besides the obvious one facing everyone, of grieving. Add in amongst other things: A controlling almost-mother-in-law, a mystery love-child, and some weird friends of Grady's who adopt her into the house they moved into that Grady was vacating to marry Gray... and you have the makings of a really good interesting movie, with plenty of surprises and sub-plots going on all at the same time. Redemption arrives in a most satisfying ending - but the movie to its credit makes you wonder throughout, if it would ever see light. Finally, what really made the movie great for me - was the soundtrack! It's terrific! Get it too (OPL has it) because you will find yourself humming the tunes long after you play it once or twice!