An Unfinished Life would be a slightly above average little indie character study - if not for 4 words - Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman. Redford truly steals this show - reasserting his thespian status, and Freeman is dead-on as the narrating conscience of the film. (think Million Dollar Baby) and then stop thinking because there are a dozen more all the way back to Shawshank. Much like Paul Newman's "Sully" in Nobody's Fool - Redford's Einar (eye-ner) Gylkison is pretty much a gruff recluse, the victim of too many bad breaks - but still the kind of guy everybody secretly admires, with his hard-boiled, down-on-his-luck cowboy charm.

Celebrated director of such character-driven faire, Lasse Hallstrom is at the helm and demonstrates the good sense to just turn on the camera and let this top-notch cast do most of the work. The script from husband and wife team Mark and Virginia Korus Spragg is solid and big hearted, if not a bit hackneyed - but proves more than enough for this veteran cast to sink their teeth into. There are a few analogies that could have been thinned down and you couldn't point to anything terribly original about this tale of beat-up misfits who manage to help each other make the best of things. The kind of story Richard Russo or John Irving might take a crack at if they weren't tethered to Maine and upstate New York.

The film gets it's title from an inscription on the headstone of Einar's long deceased son - but actually we begin in Ohio where Jean (J-Lo) and 11 year old daughter Griff (Becca Gardner) are on the run from Jean's latest abusive asshole of a boyfriend (Damion Lewis.) J. Lo has taken on several roles (Enough leaps to mind) where she's had to sport a shiner, and I think it's about time that Hollywood realized that she looks absolutely gorgeous black-eye or no black-eye. Growing ever low on options the two refugees hop a bus to Wyoming in hopes of finding temporary shelter at the home of her long-since-estranged Father-In-Law Einar. 12 years ago a car accident forever altered their lives - Einar suffered the loss of his beloved and only son, Griff, whom also happened to be Jean's husband and father of her unborn daughter. The resultant falling out between the two, has left us a dozen years down the road with (the still bitter) Einar having no idea that he has a Grand-daughter, and the Grand-daughter (Griff) having no idea that she has a living Grandfather - who happens to be a fascinating old coot of reformed alcoholic cowboy. They live on a ranch with more cats than cattle, (by selling the livestock Einar was able to keep the property, which is also home to (Mitch) an ailing Morgan Freeman. Right away we learn that Freeman requires a daily shot of Morphine - due, as we later learn, to an encounter with a Grizzly Bear - whom still roams the country side and toward whom Mitch holds not a single hard feeling. One of the analogies that could have used some thinning, but one of the plot points that holds one of the more juicy reveals in the film - so I'll leave it at that.

In any case when Jean shows up one fine Wyoming afternoon, it becomes obvious that there is little to no love lost between the two - but Jean is packing a powerful trump card in the form of a Granddaughter with the same nickname as the deceased father she never met. Young Becca does serviceable work as the pawn in this war of old wounds - she's no Alison Lohman, but she gets the job done. Much of the film deals with her discovery. Discovery of a world unlike the urban hell-holes she's grown up in, discovery of a Grandfather she didn't know she had, as well as a bond that forms between herself and Mitch. Of course the great arc of character development must take place between Einar and Jean. During one verbal exchange he kicks her off the place and she finds open arms in the form of one of her fellow waitresses, Cameryn Manheim. She also develops a love interest in local sheriff Josh Lucas.

Obviously this is not a plot-driven film (about the only event worth mentioning is the fact that Jean's abusive ex-boyfriend eventually shows up). Still the film never sags, because the acting is so good that you really become invested in the fate of each character (including the bear). You really want to see Einar and Jean come to some kind of forgiveness and acceptance, it wouldn't hurt a bit if Jean and the Sheriff get their cuffs tangled, you want to see that creepy ex-boyfriend get roughed-up on his way the hell outta town - and while you're hoping why not some sort of reconciliation between Mitch and the bear. I've tiptoed across the few little reveals that there are - they don't add up to much but they do enrich this little gem of a film, that just happens to feature the most natural performance Robert Redford's given us in a coon's age.