The Magic of Belle Isle: Endearing Fluff

Well boys and girls, there’s a whole market out there that we tend to forget about sometimes.  It’s comprised of the adult film-goer who prefers their cinema in the rated G variety. That’s right. They exist, out there, deep within the mysterious mid-west, or in tiny frontier town places with names like Sunnyvale and Pleasanton. These folks are sick of fast and choppy editing, they’re done with graphic sex and violence. They’d much rather watch Morgan Freeman portray a stodgy drunk who learns to appreciate life again through the innocent eyes of a child. And lucky for them, Rob Reiner’s new film The Magic of Belle Isle does just that.

 In this movie, drunk and washed up writer Monte Wildhorn (Morgan Freeman) moves into a sleepy town for the summer. It is unclear why he must do this, especially when we learn that his nephew lives in some sort of mansion. But he’s there, nonetheless. And he spends his days drinking and talking to the dog. Next door to this summer rental lives Mrs. O’Neil (Virginia Madsen) and her three daughters. Monte is resolute in suffering the loss of his wife as an unhappy yet eloquent drunk, but it seems the residents of this small town have other plans. There’s the pushy neighbor Al Kaiser (Fred Willard) who insists that Monte attend a memorial party, and then later read the eulogy, for a person he didn’t even know. And then there’s Finnegan O’Neil (Emma Fuhrman), Mrs. O’Neil’s middle daughter. She hounds Monte until he agrees to give her imagination lessons for $34.18 (her life savings) so that she can be a writer like him. It seems that Monte will not be allowed to wallow. And he takes to these events so smoothly that it’s difficult to believe he was an ornery drunk for the six years prior to this summer vacation. Don’t even get me started on the cute retarded boy/sidekick subplot.

Bottom line is, there’s a lot of cute in this movie. It’s slow and simple and endearing. But in an effort to get to all this endearing-ness, some of the harsher aspects were sidestepped. There’s an ongoing and messy divorce for Mrs. O’Neil, and Monte is still dealing with the death of his wife. But these things are ignored because we have to focus on the cuteness of the kids. While this may be valid—kids are cute, and there’s only so much self-pity one can indulge in before they have to suck it up—it feels as if these things were inserted as an attempt at a credible foil for the softer aspects to bounce off of.

Mrs. O’Neil is painted as perfect, and Monte somehow quits drinking after six years just because he’s decided he likes her. He even begins writing again. There’s a lot to be said about the life-changing aspects of love and the innocent hearts of children, but the changes in this story did not earn themselves.

But regardless of the slap-dash back story, this movie has wonderful actors and the charming direction of Rob Reiner. And I could watch Morgan Freeman reacting to any number of scenarios all day long. If you enjoyed March of the Penguins simply because it was narrated by Freeman, you’ll enjoy this.

And I must mention Fred Willard. He stole every scene he was in and he should have had a much, much, much bigger role.

This is a safe movie. It’s not going to win any awards, but it’s pleasant enough and you can take the whole family to it without worry of offending anybody. If that sounds like your thing, then go out and enjoy. But if not, stay home and watch Sin City again (you know you want to).