Any movie starring Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, William H. Macy, and Marcia Gay Harden carries with it the expectation of good things, and The Maiden Heist does not disappoint. Roger (Walken), Charlie (Freeman), and George (Macy) are all guards at a Boston art museum. Each has one piece to which he is virtually addicted; Roger waxes rhapsodic about a (fictional) 19th-century post-naturalist painting called “The Lovely Maiden,” referring to the subject’s “desperate longing and overwhelming passion,” while Charlie loves another painting and night guard George likes to strip off his clothes and pose like his favorite statue after hours. When the three learn that the insufferable young curator plans to sell the three works (and others) to a Danish museum, replacing them with depictions of animal genitalia and similar atrocities, they are inconsolable. They consider moving to Denmark, which doesn’t sit too well with Roger’s wife (Harden), who has her heart set on a vacation trip to sunny Florida. But George, a tightly wound former Marine (he took part in Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada), has an alternative plan: arrange to have replicas of the pieces made, and then replace the real ones with the fakes during the move. It doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that complications will ensue. The heist itself is poorly planned, to say the least, and quickly turns into a fiasco; but these are likable characters (as the tag line says, “They’re not bad guys–just bad thieves”), and, well, everything will probably turn out OK. Directed by Peter Hewitt, The Maiden Heist is unlikely to pose a threat to Citizen Kane as one of the great moments in cinematic history, but it has a light touch, a great cast, and plenty of charm. Bonus material includes a “making of” featurette and audio commentary. –Sam Graham
A VETERAN THIEF RECRUITS A YOUNGER CROOK TO HELP HIM PULL OFF ONE FINAL JOB IN ORDER TO REPAY HIS DEBT TO THE RUSSIAN MOB.
“You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you,” says the quietly wise Carter Chambers, played with gravitas and grace by a Morgan Freeman. In Rob Reiner’s moving, often hilarious film The Bucket List, all sorts of people measure themselves against the two heroes, Chambers and his hospital suitemate, Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson). But as Cole finds, having spent his entire life building a Fortune 500 company, none of that much matters when cancer, the great equalizer, pays a visit. The film traces the adventures of the two unlikely friends, who meet in a hospital cancer ward, each given six months to live. The “bucket list” of the title refers to a lifelong list of goals that a teacher of Chambers once advised him to compile–and achieve–”before you kick the bucket.” Soon the two are off on what may be the last grand adventure of their life, vowing to tick off as many goals (skydiving, race-car driving, seeing the wonders of the world) as they can in the time they have left. What starts as a medical melodrama becomes a road trip, yet the men’s mortality realities are never far from thought. The two leads give impressive performances, and remind the viewer of just how few American films focus on the lives and loves of senior citizens. Nicholson even manages to lose his persona in his character, much as he did in About Schmidt. There’s a lovely John Mayer tune, “Say (What You Need to Say),” that’s perfectly matched to the film’s clear-eyed view of life: What does one person leave behind as his true legacy? –A.T. Hurley
For his initial offering as director, Ben Affleck returns to the site of his first Oscar: South Boston. (He and Matt Damon shared the award for Good Will Hunting.) Hot on the heels of his moving turn in Hollywoodland, Affleck’s Dennis Lehane adaptation marks one of the more seamless actor-to-filmmaker transitions in recent years. Ostensibly, a procedural about the search for a missing child, class and corruption emerge as his primary concerns. First off, there’s low-rent private eye Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, equally adept in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). Then there’s the girl’s drug mule mother, Helene (Amy Ryan, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead). She and Patrick grew up in Dorchester, but he took a different path, setting up an agency with his girlfriend, Angie (Michelle Monaghan). Helene’s aunt, Bea (Amy Madigan), hires the duo to augment the investigation, and they team up with Captain Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and Detective Bressant (Madigan’s husband, Ed Harris). The authorities don’t appreciate the interference, but Patrick knows how to get the local populace talking, and he soon finds there’s more to the story than anyone could possibly imagine. Hard-hitting, but never soft-headed, the evocative end result proves Affleck has a flair for this directing thing and that his little brother can carry a major motion picture with aplomb. Gone Baby Gone belongs on the list of great Boston crime dramas, along with The Departed and Mystic River, Clint Eastwood’s take on Lehane. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
The warm, reassuring gravitas of Morgan Freeman anchors Feast of Love, a multi-character meditation on the mysteries of that oh-so-powerful emotion. Bradley (Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine), owner of a coffee shop in Oregon, thinks his marriage is idyllic–until his wife (Selma Blair, Hellboy) leaves him for another woman. One of Bradley’s baristas (Toby Hemingway, The Covenant) falls head over heels for a girl who comes looking for a job (Alexa Davalos, The Chronicles of Riddick), but his abusive father (Fred Ward, Miami Blues) spells trouble for the relationship. Finally, a professor (Freeman) and his wife (Jane Alexander, Kramer vs. Kramer) struggle to find purpose in life in the aftermath of a personal tragedy. Though some scenes are a bit precious and the dialogue leans too much on semi-philosophical pronouncements, viewers will find it hard not to identify with the universal trials of romance and the yearning for a family. Also starring Radha Mitchell (High Art, Pitch Black) as a real estate broker who can’t stop seeing a married man. Warning: Feast of Love is predominantly about the ways of the heart, it features several fairly explicit sex scenes. Directed by Robert Benton (Places in the Heart, Nobody’s Fool). –Bret Fetzer
While on a hiking trip to reconnect with his son after the death of his wife, Ray Keene (John Cusack) stumbles into a nightmare scenario of paid assassins and ex-military guns-for-hire. Frank Cardin (Morgan Freeman) is attempting to fulfill a contract to assassinate a high profile businessman when things go arwy and he ends up in the custody of the U.S. Marshalls. After an ill-fated attempt by his compatriots to free him Frank finds himself in the custody of ex-lawman Ray and his son (Jamie Anderson). As the trio tries to make their way back to civilization they are relentlessly pursued by Frank’s friends who are intent on freeing their leader in order to collect on the contract. But one pursuer may be more foe than friend.
Much like the late Rodney Dangerfield, some films just can’t get any respect. Shelved by Miramax for two years, An Unfinished Life was released with little fanfare between Morgan Freeman’s Oscar win and Lasse Hallström’s higher-profile Casanova. Despite critical praise from some quarters, the heartland drama got lost amidst the shuffle. The title comes from the epitaph of Griffin, late son of Wyoming rancher Einar (a rumpled Robert Redford). Between chores, he looks after ranch hand Mitch (Freeman), who was mauled by a bear the year before. One day, daughter-in-law Jean (Jennifer Lopez) and granddaughter Griff (Becca Gardner) drop by the ranch unexpectedly. They’re on the run from Jean’s abusive boyfriend, Gary (Damian Lewis), back in Iowa. “I don’t want you here,” Einar states flatly–he blames her for Griffin’s death 12 years ago–but the look on the kid’s face convinces him to relent. While Jean works as a waitress in town and embarks on a tentative relationship with Sheriff Crane (Josh Lucas), his newfound granddaughter helps to take care of Mitch. Just as the four are starting to form a loose-knit family, Gary comes looking for Jean and upsets the delicate balance. It may pack fewer surprises than the superior What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and the bear symbolism may be a mite heavy-handed, but the deeply unfashionable An Unfinished Life deserves a second chance to find an audience. –Kathleen C. Fennessy
Clint Eastwood’s 25th film as a director, Million Dollar Baby stands proudly with Unforgiven and Mystic River as the masterwork of a great American filmmaker. In an age of bloated spectacle and computer-generated effects extravaganzas, Eastwood turns an elegant screenplay by Paul Haggis (adapted from the book Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner by F.X. Toole, a pseudonym for veteran boxing manager Jerry Boyd) into a simple, humanitarian example of classical filmmaking, as deeply felt in its heart-wrenching emotions as it is streamlined in its character-driven storytelling. In the course of developing powerful bonds between “white-trash” Missouri waitress and aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), her grizzled, reluctant trainer Frankie Dunn (Eastwood), and Frankie’s best friend and training-gym partner Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris (Morgan Freeman), 74-year-old Eastwood mines gold from each and every character, resulting in stellar work from his well-chosen cast. Containing deep reserves of love, loss, and the universal desire for something better in hard-scrabble lives, Million Dollar Baby emerged, quietly and gracefully, as one of the most acclaimed films of 2004, released just in time to earn an abundance of year-end accolades, all of them well-deserved. –Jeff Shannon
After an obligatory prologue in which its detective hero suffers a tragic professional setback, Along Came a Spider sets about its business of luring the viewer into its nefarious plot, relying on the magician’s technique of misdirection to reveal a double-whammy surprise. The clever, late-coming plot twist is a bit too mechanical but effectively unexpected, making this a satisfying prequel to the hit thriller Kiss the Girls–based on the first of James Patterson’s Alex Cross detective novels–and a welcomed addition to a promising movie franchise. It’s no better or worse than a good vintage episode of Peter Falk’s Columbo, adhering closely to the mystery-thriller’s time-honored traditions, but with Morgan Freeman settling comfortably into his role as seasoned sleuth Alex Cross, familiar formula is given fresh vitality.
Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman star in this suspense-filled tale of interrogation–less of a whodunit than a didhedoit. Freeman plays Victor Benezet, a police captain investigating the murder of a child, and Hackman is Henry Hearst, a prominent lawyer and pillar of the community who also happens to be the prime suspect. Benezet and Hearst have a history together, and Benezet is torn between showing deference for an old friend and prominent community figure and ruthlessly pursuing a man he believes to be a child murderer. Director Stephen Hopkins spins multiple versions of the same events, popping details in and out as Hearst’s story changes. Hopkins also uses the unusual and satisfying technique of juxtaposing the interview room with other locations, allowing Benezet to “follow” Hearst through his movements as he questions him. Under Suspicion also serves up the delicious eye candy of Puerto Rico during the St. Sebastian festival, but the real treat is getting to watch two masters like Hackman and Freeman square off. –Ali Davis