Sex-charged Feast of Love induces gag reflex
Trite truisms seem to be all filmmakers have to offer in Feast of Love.
Feast focuses on the romantic struggles of multiple couples with Bradley (Little Miss Sunshine’s Greg Kinnear) at the center. He is an oblivious coffee shop owner who just cannot catch a break when it comes to women. The movie follows Bradley’s 18-month struggle through two marriages and divorces before he comes across “The One” under bizarre circumstances.
Although similar to Love Actually in approach, Feast features none of Love Actually’s emotional resonance or engaging storylines. In contrast, Feast of Love is really only about love if love equals sex and nudity.
The movie’s “tell, do not show” methodology — except when it comes to sex — inhibits a viewer’s connection with the film. Unrealistically, characters spill their deepest thoughts upon first encountering a romantic prospect. And without any relationship development beforehand, the act of sex that is supposed to stand as an expression of the characters’ love becomes merely a cheap device that robs the characters of the depth produced through conversation.
Feast of Love fails most in its simplified presentation of people. Both Bradley and the women with whom he is involved are caricatures of romantic stereotypes — Bradley as the innocent, devoted lover and the women as uninterested in his affection.
Take Bradley’s first wife, Kathryn (Legally Blonde’s Selma Blair) for instance. The initial scenes of the movie set up the premise of Kathryn as a withholding grump, while Bradley is her caring, faithful husband. Within a few scenes, Kathryn is sleeping with another woman. And when Kathryn explodes at Bradley and walks out — after he has put together a thoughtful birthday celebration for her, of course — the viewer is made to understand that Kathryn just does not appreciate the love Bradley has for her.
Another romantic entanglement involves Chloe (Alexa Davalos of television’s “Reunion”) and ex-drug addict Oscar (The Covenant’s Toby Hemingway). However, their relationship is a simplified representation of the perfect relationship in which a star-crossed couple struggles against Oscar’s evil, drunken father.
In contrast to Love Actually’s couples, with whom the viewer develops a relationship despite their brief screen time, viewers never emotionally connect with any of Feast’s characters or feel invested in their romantic relationships. What is supposed to be the heart-wrenching climax of Chloe and Oscar’s relationship falls flat because their relationship lacks realism in its simplified perfection.
There is nothing here worth seeing. Oscar-winning director Robert Benton and screenwriters Allison Burnett (Kramer vs. Kramer) and Charles Baxter (author of the novel, Feast of Love) water down or emulate movies that actually work, presenting love as worthwhile and heartfelt only in sex. Ultimately, Feast of Love is nothing more than empty calories.
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