The Greatest

Grace (Susan Sarandon) and Allen Brewer (Pierce Brosnan) are devastated when their son Bennett (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is killed. He had stopped in the middle of the road to romance Rose (Carey Mulligan) when they get hit by Jordan Walker (Michael Shannon). Grace is obsessed with her son's last minutes with the criminal Jordan waiting for him to wake up from his coma. When a pregnant Rose shows up at their door, Grace is furious and disbelieving. Allen is more supportive of the homeless Rose. Bennett's black sheep younger brother Ryan (Johnny Simmons) struggles to deal with his family and he finds Ashley (Zoë Kravitz) in his support group.

The greatest part is the actors. There are some aspects that feels awkward. Grace's obsession is very obsessive. Her relationship with Rose is strange. It speaks to a dysfunction before Bennett's death. Carey Mulligan is enchanting and Pierce Brosnan is terrific. Aaron Taylor-Johnson doesn't fit the school star role. He's more of a geek. This is a sudsy soap that has plenty of family melodrama that is elevated by the first class cast.

"The Greatest" feels like a Hallmark Channel movie with top A-list actors. Depending on what you think of the Hallmark Channel, this is either a compliment or an insult. As my title implies, sentimentality drives this story, not suspense or plot twists. Everything is (deliberately) predictable, meaning the actors' performances are the real attraction.

The story is about a dysfunctional family dealing with mourning and the extreme ways each person handles it, mostly in unflattering ways as if to show us how NOT to handle tragedy. The plot focuses on how they slowly attempt to reconcile their differences. The father (Pierce Brosnan) plays the stereotypical head of the household who refuses to break. The mother (Susan Sarandon) plays the self-absorbed victim who feels like she's the only one who's in pain. The son/brother (Johnny Simmons) totally disconnects as if he doesn't care. And a mysterious stranger who was the secret girlfriend (Carey Mulligan) represents the objective voice of reason with her wise, tolerant perspective, never really revealing her own struggle but instead seeking to draw the others out of their respective prisons.

If that description bores you, then you'll probably be bored by the movie. But if the core premise interests you, then give it a shot.

Although I said there are no plot twists, there are a few interesting complications (revealed right in the beginning) which spice up the story. Themes of infidelity, drug addiction, convicted criminals and unplanned pregnancy add some interesting flavor. But those remain off to the side so not to upstage the main story.

The climax and resolution comes down to a painful cliché which made me hate the movie at first, but now 24 hours later I think sometimes a cliché is the best way to make a point. I'm just mentioning that in case you have a similar reaction: give it some thought.

If you are looking for other quiet movies that focus on themes of loss and grieving, I recommend "Morning" (2010) - five chapters, or days, in the life of a couple suffering a tragedy; and on the lighter side I highly recommend "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School" (2005) - the only movie that has multiple tragic deaths but manages to get your toes tapping to the Lindy Hop.

Except for the baby ,the movie will remind Italian cinema buffs of "La Stanza DeL Figlio" and the part of Ryan is close to Conrad the young brother of "ordinary people" ;like in the contemporary "rabbit hole" each of the parents desperately searches for solace:the mother tries to talk to the other injured driver to know the last words of her son (whereas Nicole Kidman,fascinated by a comic ,wants to believe that in parallel universes ,her son is happy);the father tries to live again,goes to the movie theater with the pregnant girlfriend,attends the echography whereas his wife quickly leaves the room "if you lose your dog,we're not given a puppy!" The cast is excellent ,particularly Pierce Brosnan,cast against type :he and his younger son seem to have overcome the pain,but when they finally break down,their despair and their tears are deeply moving.The flashbacks are short and effective ,particularly the last one which is also the end of the movie and which is not a goodbye but a hello.

The Greatest (2009)

A crisis of youth becomes a crisis for a whole family, and it's serious stuff. There's an attempt, very conspicuous in gesture and angst filled expressions, to be gritty and real, and it's a believable scenario. It's a tearjerker, surely, an intimate psychodrama dripping in sentiment.

However, the movie depends almost purely on this terrible crisis to succeed, and that's actually slightly backwards, in movie terms. That is, it should be the writing and acting that sweeps us in and makes us share the grief of the main characters. You end up wanting to empathize, but it's sometimes despite the movie, which pushes very hard, like a friend who wants to make you feel bad about something. It has such touching moments it's hard to quite accept that a lot of it is clumsily written, almost like a high budget beginner's film, which sounds worse than I mean it. But you'll see, I think, even if you love it thoroughly, that it works modestly. So accept its flaws, ignore the obvious flashbacks to the good times, skip the dining room table where people are sitting all on one side so we can see them all from the camera, ignore the patter that is meant to make life ordinary and doesn't, and so on. Be forgiving or give it a pass.

What saves the movie (somewhat) from its excesses is the performance of the lead girl, Rose (Carey Mulligan), and the father, Mr. Brewer, played by Pierce Brosnan, who is a nuanced dad, whatever his James Bond pedigree, though neither one is given decent lines to work with. (Brosnan was also a producer, go figure.) The mother is meant to be disturbed in her grief, and she sure is. The sexy grad assistant is too too obvious even for the movies. And the brother, well, what is his role, actually, just to add a second improbable plot? And there is surveillance video of the crash, which is beyond even reasonable open-mindedness, given the isolation implied by the first several minutes of the movie. The sensationalism of that, alone, will warn you of what's to come.

Okay, one last confession. It gets so emotionally atomic at times, with the throbbing cellos coming in the background, I had to laugh out loud. I swear. And yet, I see how it deals with some truly, believably gorgeous stuff.

This film is about a family who grief over the loss of their son in a traffic accident. This process is complicated by the unexpected arrival of a teenage girl who claims to have their son's unborn child.

"The Greatest" is powerful and touching. The mother, played by the amazing Susan Sarandon, is relentless in knowing the truth about her son's final moments. She gives such a moving performance that anyone gets saddened by her tragic loss. Carey Mulligan also deserves mention, as she displays a spectrum of convincing emotions effortlessly. Judging by the stream of great movies she is in, she will be a big star and Hollywood knows it.

"The Greatest" is a powerful story that moves anyone easily. As Susan Sarandon's character says, once your child is born, a woman knows that her child is the greatest. It is easy to relate to this statement, and yet everyone seems to be forgetting to celebrate this fact. As this film shows, you never know what you have got until its gone. "The Greatest" is a powerful reminder that you should treasure your family before its too late.