Adapted by The Hours’ Michael Cunningham from his own novel, this examination of an ad hoc family is ambitious if occasionally dull. Damaged Bobby is adopted into Jonathan’s family in early-’70s Ohio; mutual adoration, and masturbation under the sheets, ensues. But when the adult Bobby (Colin Farrell) seeks out Jonathan (Dallas Roberts) in early-’80s New York, where he is living with frayed free spirit Clare (Robin Wright Penn), love becomes harder to fathom. Jonathan, gay and glumly promiscuous, is unobtainable to Clare, who falls for virginal Bobby instead. Soon all three are trying to raise a baby in an idyllic farmhouse, but old monogamous, motherly wants aren’t so easily out-run. Director Michael Mayer’s debut deals in hard emotions, which his cast hit head on. Sexuality is treated with sympathetic frankness, and love’s raw frustrations ring true. Only moments of feel-good smugness, and the turgid pace near the end, let it down.
Adapted by The Hours’ Michael Cunningham from his own novel, this examination of an ad hoc family is ambitious if occasionally dull. Damaged Bobby is adopted into Jonathan’s family in early-’70s Ohio; mutual adoration, and masturbation under the sheets, ensues. But when the adult Bobby (Colin Farrell) seeks out Jonathan (Dallas Roberts) in early-’80s New York, where he is living with frayed free spirit Clare (Robin Wright Penn), love becomes harder to fathom. Jonathan, gay and glumly promiscuous, is unobtainable to Clare, who falls for virginal Bobby instead. Soon all three are trying to raise a baby in an idyllic farmhouse, but old monogamous, motherly wants aren’t so easily out-run. Director Michael Mayer’s debut deals in hard emotions, which his cast hit head on. Sexuality is treated with sympathetic frankness, and love’s raw frustrations ring true. Only moments of feel-good smugness, and the turgid pace near the end, let it down.
