Longing

I loved this film and can't understand why it has such a low rating. The story develops beautifully from start to finish, with plenty of twists and turns, a lovely sense of humor, and a great cast delivering fantastic performances. What I like most is the balance: neither the actors nor the script become overly dramatic, despite the characters' significant pain. The humor is perfectly balanced as well-any more or less, and it wouldn't work. Well done. It seems like audiences are getting less discerning by the day. If you don't understand what you're watching, please refrain from rating it. I strongly recommend this unconventionally sweet movie.

Fiction, whether a book or a film, always requires a willing suspension of disbelief. After all, it's entertainment: you know life and events rarely move forward the way the author presents them, but it's enjoyable to imagine the 'what if?'.

Richard Gere brings his A-game to everything he does. For the first half of the movie, I believe him, and I can see his character's journey. But then, things no longer make sense.

Why does everyone talk and act as if the deceased son was still alive? Why do the supporting characters go along with the craziness? Why does the movie suddenly drop the connection to Daniel's business in New York?

Are all the events of the movie supposed to happen within a week? If so, how could the final scene be even possible?

I like how the movie slowly unfolds and paints a realistic picture of the deceased son with a rich but flawed personality. If the movie focused on how Daniel reassesses his own life based on the life of a son he never knew he had until the week before, I think this would have been a fine movie. But the film adds one implausibility to another and another, until I can no longer suspend my disbelief.

I enjoyed this film a great deal, not least because of Richard Gere's deeply convincing dramatic portrayal of Richard Bloch, a man who becomes obsessed with the son he never knew, and who becomes determined to find validation of himself through the boy he never met. The story unfolds slowly, gradually disclosing its secrets only, it would seem, incidentally. Meanwhile, Bloch discovers in himself, the dutiful son, also what might have been a doting father. Sidetracked from the vocation of fatherhood, he becomes a successful, if insular individual and it's only through the unexpected encounter with a child he never met, does he engage with the promise within himself that had gone unrealized - even as his expectations are diminished and the idealism of fatherhood is laid bare by a son, who, finally falls far short. It's a brilliant study in paternal love and longing, imo, and wonderfully acted by all. Gere's performance, was for me, a revelation. I simply never expected this of him. Offbeat, and quite dark, this film will appeal to people who enjoy stories from life; who are ok with the unconventional, and engage with life's complexities.

I saw the previous review and thought, well, it can't be that bad. But, it was. It started out pretty good and then before long devolved into bizarre then insanity. Just strange. I kept thinking that there would be some twist that I didn't see coming and that then I would understand all of the bizarre behavior and acting. That never happened. It just got worse and worse. Even at the end I though that something would happen, but it didn't. Overall I think the acting was fine, but the story was just not very good. The movie left me feeling really nothing, except that I wasted a bunch of time. Don't bother with this movie.

I gave a little hope to this movie because of the casting and a breif storyline introduced. However, at the end, I could not understand why the people involved in productionbwould think the story is fine and really made it happen. What a disappointed movie which absolutely wastes my time and triggered my anger after that.

A father who never knew his son before made a series of stuipd and silly things but everyone around him also did the same. I could not see any love from this movie but just non sense actions and decisions made.

If anyone finds difficult in sleeping, this movie may help you.