Review of Feast of Love (2007) by Charles G — 06 Feb 2013

I'm not sure what this film set out to do. It looks at the idea of 'love' in different relationships with characters that are connected, however loosely, with the other characters in the film. What worked for me with this film were the strong and powerful scenes where an actual point was being made; when the couple having an affair have an argument over one's announcement of a new marriage. This scene was unfortunately surrounded by many wishy washy ones, where love was approached in either an extremely sappy way with lots of kissing and looking lovingly into each others eyes, or through very over the top sex and nudity scenes which threw off the overall relaxed feel of the film.

As for the performances, I would say the cast performed well. The problem with this particular screenplay is that because it's attempting to provide a look at an array of characters rather than focusing on just a handful, you never feel that you really know what each character is about, and so when Blair's character leaves her husband for another woman (I'm not giving anything huge away there), you are unsure as to where this has come from or why, and as an audience you are meant to just accept it, along with other events that are not fully explained.

I did enjoy watching this movie, it has some truly touching moments and of course some tragic moments, but nothing overly uplifting to lift the audience out of these somewhat depressing scenes, so for me the film explored some valid and often realistic downsides to relationships, but then left you there. It would have been nice to have some more uplifting scenes, but then again this may not have been the director's vision, so who knows.

For me, a movie with some fine ideas and moments, but a film that left me unsatisfied and wanting more.