By Suzanne A. Marshall from the June 2016 Edition
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Virginia Madsen
Director: Rob Reiner
“Monty Wildhorn, an alcoholic novelist of Westerns, has lost his drive. His nephew pushes him to summer in 
quiet Belle Isle. He begrudgingly befriends a newly single mom and her 3 girls who help him find the inspiration to write again.”
Not only is Monty an alcoholic but he is also disabled and living in a wheelchair. He is brought to Belle Isle to enjoy the summer and hopefully find himself again. But no matter how hard Monty tries to be a miserable old coot, it doesn’t play that way in this role.
So the film ends up being kind of sweet, schmaltzy and sad but unfortunately not too believable. This may be because I just can’t buy Morgan Freeman in this role. I’ve had too much exposure to his fatherly and wise personas in other movies I think. The setting of Belle Isle is beautiful and the kids and dog in the story do a good job of softening up Monty’s character as the story unfolds.
If you like sweet and sentimental and are just looking for some nice story without a lot of violence, language or angst, this movie may well entertain you. It does have ‘feel good’ qualities and a happy ending.
IMDB rating: 7/10 based on 12,410 viewers. A bit over-rated for me.
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Suzanne A. Marshall hails from western Canada and has been living the good life in Manzanillo over the past 8 years. She is a wife, mom and grandma. She is retired from executive business management where her writing skills focused on bureaucratic policy, marketing and business newsletters. Now she shares the fun and joy of writing about everyday life experiences in beautiful Manzanillo, Mexico, the country, its people, the places and the events.
