Written by Pollo Misterioso

Robert Benton’s film Feast of Love makes a valiant attempt to satisfy any appetite when it comes to love. Unfortunately, some of the life lessons that are to be taken from the movie make it seem more like a buffet line—ordinary, stale, and the choices are already made for you.

It is based the 2007 novel by Charles Baxter and boasts a great cast, with leads played by Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear. Freeman’s Harry Stevenson begins the film, narrating his thoughts on what it means to be human as he walks around town in the middle of the night. We then flashback 18 months before this as we see him meet up with friend Bradley Thomas (Kinnear) on a softball diamond. Here we see Bradley’s wife Kathryn, played by Selma Blair, about to go up to bat.

As a witness to the daily activities of these Portland folks, we also see how these people fall in love, and it as quick and perfect as the movies make it out to be. Our first run-in with love comes when Kathryn falls for another softball player in a bar, while she is still in the arms of her husband. In case we didn’t see it happen, Stevenson tells his wife that he saw two people fall in love that day.

Our next couple de jour is between the barista Oscar, played by Toby Hemingway, and Chloe, played by Alexa Davalos. They meet and it’s love at first sight. Their love is pure and strong, something that Oscar always acknowledges—they have nothing to fear.

Bradley represents the bumbling fool when it comes to love, for he loves blindly, and with the end of his first marriage, his approach doesn’t seem to work out for him. He keeps on loving, trying again and again to find a true a love that will love him back. His second attempt comes in the form of a real estate agent that comes into his coffee shop on a rainy day. Diana, played by Radha Mitchell, is another flawed woman that cannot seem to stay away from married men. Bradley is doomed, but even though Diana loves men that are already attached, it seems that it still works out for her.

Throughout Feast Stevenson plays the all-knowing guidance counselor to these younger couples, giving them advice from his table at the coffee shop. Interestingly, he is flawed himself, he has lost love in his life and it still haunts him. Of course, Freeman is perfectly cast in such role, but his character only gets so troubled, we never see what goes on under the surface.