Sundance. "The Greatest"

By David Hudson on 01/19/2009

"My first word was 'Wow,'" writes Ray Pride at Movie City News, where he lays out a big line of photos snapped at the standing-O premiere of "The Greatest," "a magnificent, heartfelt romantic melodrama with startling acting, bold yet telling production design, and a worthy great-granddaughter to the films of Douglas Sirk."

"'The Greatest' charts the uneasy journey people must undertake in the face of grief," writes Tim Grierson for Screen, "but first-time filmmaker Shana Feste can't quite fully bring this emotionally delicate drama to fruition. A tearjerker about a middle-aged couple coping with the loss of their 18-year-old son - not to mention the imminent and unexpected birth of his child - 'The Greatest' combines the tragedy of 'Ordinary People' with the teen-pregnancy plotline of 'Juno,' resulting in a film with some good performances that gets hamstrung by tonal problems."

Updated through 1/25.

"'The Greatest' has moments of levity that keep the movie from becoming entirely too depressing but for the most part, this is a film about love and grief," writes Kelly West at Cinema Blend. "[Susan] Sarandon in particular delivers such a raw performance that at times, it becomes uncomfortable to watch her because it's clear her character is on the verge of falling apart and though her husband wants to help her, he doesn't know how. [Pierce] Brosnan delivers a fantastic performance as the helpless husband who's bottling up his grief for the sake of his family. As Ryan, [Johnny] Simmons carries the role well as the occasionally strung out and slightly bitter younger brother who secretly admired his big brother despite always being outshined by him. Surrounded by exceptional acting, [Carey] Mulligan holds up well as Rose, the sweet girl who's dealing with her own grief and looking to get to know the man she believes was the love of her life."

"Feste actually displays an exceptional formalism in her first writer-director excursion - in the first half of the movie, that is - employing long takes and clever symbolism to mirror the family's distinct unhappiness." Eric Kohn at indieWIRE: "The second half, however, plays like a rejected soap opera. As he tends to do in overly melodramatic stories of troubled marriages, Michael Shannon, as the driver responsible for Bennett's death, steals the show."

"In this compelling drama, writer-director Shana Feste transcends a clinical depiction of grief, which in less assured hands could have morphed into a talking-heads essay," writes Duane Byrge for the Hollywood Reporter.

"This is an incredible window into the experience of extreme suffering along the lines of 'Leaving Las Vegas,'" writes Charlie at Cinema Strikes Back. "That said, it's success in conveying this misery is also a curse, because it makes it a beatdown to watch."

Feste answers Filmmaker's query as to how the story was "shaped by the social, technological and economic forces affecting cinema today." She was also one of Filmmaker's "25 New Faces of Independent Film" this past summer.

Updates: "Sarandon has done the grieving mother role before - many, many times - and it's hard not to think of films like 'Lorenzo's Oil' or 'Moonlight Mile' or 'Safe Passage' while watching her," writes Bilge Ebiri at Screengrab. "That sense of familiarity with her performance works against the film's attempts to convey the upheaval in its characters' lives. No, it's actually Brosnan who makes the film, and without him in it, I'm not sure I would have been able to take it at all seriously.... His presence here takes what might have been an agonizingly obvious drama of grief and threatens to turn it into something altogether more surprising."

Online viewing tip. Geoffrey Gilmore introduces a Sundance Channel segment on the film.

Updates, 1/20: "Will someone please stop Susan Sarandon from playing grief-stricken mothers before this once-great actress becomes a one-trick caricature of her former self?" asks Scott Foundas. "No movie at Sundance this year has depressed me more - not because of the story it tells, but because of the creative bankruptcy it embodies."

Online viewing tip. Geoffrey Gilmore introduces the Sundance Channel's "Meet the Filmmaker" segment.

Update, 1/21: This is "a well-observed study of an affluent family's grief and rebirth after a tragic accident," writes Todd McCarthy in Variety. "Feste was inspired by the psychological insight into family disruptions of 'Ordinary People; in making her film, and one critical result of this influence was her recruitment of that picture's cinematographer, John Bailey, whose work here is superlative; the compositions are bold and strong, the lighting exquisite, making 'The Greatest' a visual pleasure."

Update, 1/23: Logan Hill talks with Mulligan for Vulture.

Update, 1/25: Online viewing tip. David Poland talks with Feste, Sarandon and Brosnan.

[Photo: "The Greatest," Barbarian Films, 2009]

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Tags: Carey Mulligan, Johnny Simmons, Michael Shannon, Pierce Brosnan, Shana Feste, Sundance 2009, Susan Sarandon, The Greatest