An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but it had been a while since I saw a movie directed by Rod Reiner and since this one was also starring Morgan Freeman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, I was really surprised by how weak the damned thing actually turned out to be. Sure, it was not as bad as ‘North’ was, the movie that completely derailed Reiner’s career, but it wasn't far from it. Seriously, from the moment I saw this grumpy old guy coming into town, I already knew where the damned thing was heading and I lost all interest I might have had within the first 10 minutes. Indeed, somehow, the guy will be charmed by this little town and its inhabitants and he will slowly become a very nice fellow after all. So, it was terribly generic and, to make things worse, this journey from being basically a suicidal drunkards to an average old guy with a crush with his neighbour was not exactly really smooth. Basically, the main (and only?) argument provided by this movie explaining this change of heart was the fact that he apparently fell in love with Virginia Madsen’s character but, to be honest, it was probably one of the least convincing romances I have seen. The main issue was not really that Freeman and Madsen didn’t have much chemistry, it was more the fact that I didn’t see how or why they should be in love. I mean, basically, Monte fell in love because she was able to play the piano and she fell in love because he…. Well, what did he do exactly?!? To be honest, nothing much. There were also a few sub-plots but there were all terribly half-baked. Anyway, to conclude, even if the damned thing was rather harmless, it was also really lame and I don’t think it is worth a look at all.