アンフィニッシュド・ライフ: An Unfinished Life @ シネコン: CineMa Complex

/ 2005-09-24 This film, produced by Alan Ladd, Jr., was filmed in Wyoming with wild animals as well as ranch horses and one cow, lots of cats. Robert Redford was the unforgiving rancher who had lost everything when his son died almost twelve years earlier. His wife left him because he sank into a bout of drunkenness, and he was unable to help his hired man who was badly mauled by a giant bear. His life had basically come to an end, until his dead son's widow with his eleven-year old granddaughter, played marvelously by Becca Gardner, returned home "on the range" fleeing an abusive man in Iowa.

Like Jett Williams, the girl was born after the death of her dad and did not know until they were on the bus that she even had a granddad. They'd been on the curvy roads on the way to the Stampede show to take part when there was the tragic car accident, for which the father could never forgive or forget. He spent a lot of time sitting at his son's grave and having a one-way conversation. He tried to keep living, but just could not let the dead go. My son, Zach, is having that same thing to deal with now that the numbness of Tristan's car accident had faded and the pain is enormous for the whole family.

Griffin's death had caused them all to have 'an unfinished life,' particularly the grieving father who died slowly every day. He milked one cow as he had sold all the stock to have enough to keep the ranch, where the son is buried. He has the memories which he could not erase. Griffin had wanted a life of his own, which ended much too soon. They all felt guilt over his loss, as I did after Tristan died in April when I thought I was going to. He mourned for a life he thought he should have had, but they soon learned that there is a reason for everything.

Josh Lucas, with his blue eyes, looked like Zach used to as a young high school lad. He was good as the sheriff who had an affair with the girl's mom, Jennifer Lopez. A weak man is one who runs after a woman who doesn't want her. Gary, the abusive 'boyfriend,' finds them and starts his violent streak again but this time it backfires on him, and he is on his way out of town on a bus, this time.

The bear, played by Bart the Bear, has a rough time caged up in a sort of zoo, one buffalo, some llamas, two wolves, and an elephant. He is sprung from his prison by the rancher and his accomplice, who lets the gears shift on the old Mercury truck and he ends up in the hospital. She is distraught as she tries to come to terms with her guilt, and explains that it was an accident. That is what the widow had told her father-in-law about the time his son died, because it was a freak accident.

The hired man is hanging on by a mere string as his pain is almost unbearable, but he had asked that the bear be let free to roam. It finds him and he shows no fear, and tells it to just keep going. He says all he ever wanted was to be a cowboy. In the end, everything is forgiven. The interpersonal relationships drag on as he has to face the truth when he was asked, "Did it ever occur to you that everything can be replaced," and that others get dealt a bad hand sometimes, too. Everyone needs to feel loved, thus the affair which the whole town knows about. She felt that she should have died in place of her husband and wished that moment she fell asleep at the wheel had never happened. She lashed out with words instead of violence as that is what she had been dealt.

The "meow" at the end was a fitting tribute to the nameless cats he kept at the barn. The two old men asked each other, "Do the dead care about our lives? They forgive us our sins." Each person has realized his inadequacies, and that no one is perfect. They are asked to live there and give the girl a home where she belongs.