Accidents happen….bodies have an amazing power to heal on the outside, but the scars on the inside, when life runs a semi-truck right over your heart, are harder to recover from. Guilt, grudges, fault finding, and those awful “what ifs” pick away at the interior scars making them fester, slowing down the healing process. I know you’ve seen souls like this – walking around with pain so deep it breaks your heart.
An Unfinished Life is a movie about the walking wounded, people who walk around with unseen scars, hidden pain, and hopes for redemption. Watching this movie is comfort food for the soul and sends the message, even in the darkest times of our lives that “there is always hope.”
Quotes
“Einar Gilkyson: Think it might rain today.
Mitch Bradley: Naw, it’s gonna stay warm.
Einar Gilkyson: I didn’t say anything about the temperature. I said
it might rain.
Mitch Bradley: Would you bury me next to Griffin?
Einar Gilkyson: Don’t you think you oughtta die first?
Mitch Bradley: It’s gonna happen, you know.
Einar Gilkyson: Where the hell else do you think I’d bury you? It’s
where my family lies. You think the dead really care about our
lives?
Mitch Bradley: Yeah, I think they do. I think they forgive us our
sins. I even think it’s easy for them.
Einar Gilkyson: Griff said you had a dream about flying.
Mitch Bradley: Yeah. I got so high, Einar. I could see where the blue
turns to black. From up there, you can see all there is. And it
looked like there was a reason for everything.”
Plot Summary
In the opening scene of An Unfinished Life you see a crusty and slightly eccentric Einar Gilkyson (Robert Redford) doing morning chores and tending to his ranch hand Mitch Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who was attacked by a bear a year earlier. You learn later that Einar was drunk at the time of the bear attack, failing to save his best friend from serious injury...the bear escaped. Some time has passed since the accident and Mitch's wounds give him constant pain. Hanging onto sobriety by a thin thread, Einar cares for his friend, giving him morphine injections, friendship, and food as he tries to nurse Mitch back to health.
The movie shifts to Einar’s estranged daughter-in-law Jean Gilkyson (Jennifer Lopez), her head is hanging and her face is battered. She is being lectured to by her abusive boyfriend Gary Winston (Diaman Lewis) about how “she just makes him have to hit her,” while her daughter Griff Gilkyson (Becca Gardener) looks on. After this violent encounter, Jean escapes with her daughter in a beat up old car which breaks down on a no-name stretch of highway. At the end of her rope spiritually and financially, she decides to go to the ranch of her estranged father-in-law Einar in Wyoming, knowing he blames her for the death of her husband, his son Griffin, in a car accident. (Einar’s son, Griffen had moved away and married Jean years ago, causing a rift in the family that came to a head when Griffin died in the car accident.)
The bear returns to Gilkyson ranch looking for food -- Einar sees the tracks, but the bear has moved on turning his attention towards town for a fresh source of food. Sheriff Crane Curtis (Josh Lucas) captures the bear and the animal is put on display in a cage at the local town zoo. About this same time Einar's daughter-in-law arrives on at the ranch with a granddaughter, he didn’t know he had, in tow.
After a lukewarm reception from her father-in-law, Jean and Griff move into the basement with Einar in the main house and help him take care of Mitch in the bunkhouse. Tension mounts between Einar and Jean because both are still grieving for Griffin. Mitch encourages him to make peace with his past and the family he has who is still alive by sharing, “a granddaughter, that’s a nice thing for a man to have.” Mitch’s wisdom begins to sink in and the ice around Einar’s heart begins to melt for his son’s daughter.
Jean starts working at a local coffee shop where she befriends the owner Nina (Camryn Manheim), who (along with Mitch) helps her come to understand Einar’s crusty ways and fills in the blanks of what has happened in her father-in-law’s life since Griffin’s funeral. Jean also starts a “friends with benefits” relationship with Sheriff Curtis which promises to blossom into something more, but Jean has been in a series of abusive relationships since her husband’s death and Griff can’t bring herself to trust the Sheriff when he comes to visit.
Jean grows stronger and things start looking up for her and Griff as life falls into a safe and comfortable routine, even with Einar’s bouts of crustiness, until Gary comes to Wyoming. Then all hell breaks loose….Want more? I hope you do because this is a movie you don’t want to miss.
Life Lesson
“They call’em accidents because it’s nobody’s fault.” Mitch Bradley to Einar Gilkyson
An Unfinished Life is a movie about the walking wounded, people who walk around with unseen scars, hidden pain, and hopes for redemption. Watching this movie is comfort food for the soul and sends the message, even in the darkest times of our lives that “there is always hope.”
Quotes
“Einar Gilkyson: Think it might rain today.
Mitch Bradley: Naw, it’s gonna stay warm.
Einar Gilkyson: I didn’t say anything about the temperature. I said
it might rain.
Mitch Bradley: Would you bury me next to Griffin?
Einar Gilkyson: Don’t you think you oughtta die first?
Mitch Bradley: It’s gonna happen, you know.
Einar Gilkyson: Where the hell else do you think I’d bury you? It’s
where my family lies. You think the dead really care about our
lives?
Mitch Bradley: Yeah, I think they do. I think they forgive us our
sins. I even think it’s easy for them.
Einar Gilkyson: Griff said you had a dream about flying.
Mitch Bradley: Yeah. I got so high, Einar. I could see where the blue
turns to black. From up there, you can see all there is. And it
looked like there was a reason for everything.”
Plot Summary
In the opening scene of An Unfinished Life you see a crusty and slightly eccentric Einar Gilkyson (Robert Redford) doing morning chores and tending to his ranch hand Mitch Bradley (Morgan Freeman), who was attacked by a bear a year earlier. You learn later that Einar was drunk at the time of the bear attack, failing to save his best friend from serious injury...the bear escaped. Some time has passed since the accident and Mitch's wounds give him constant pain. Hanging onto sobriety by a thin thread, Einar cares for his friend, giving him morphine injections, friendship, and food as he tries to nurse Mitch back to health.
The movie shifts to Einar’s estranged daughter-in-law Jean Gilkyson (Jennifer Lopez), her head is hanging and her face is battered. She is being lectured to by her abusive boyfriend Gary Winston (Diaman Lewis) about how “she just makes him have to hit her,” while her daughter Griff Gilkyson (Becca Gardener) looks on. After this violent encounter, Jean escapes with her daughter in a beat up old car which breaks down on a no-name stretch of highway. At the end of her rope spiritually and financially, she decides to go to the ranch of her estranged father-in-law Einar in Wyoming, knowing he blames her for the death of her husband, his son Griffin, in a car accident. (Einar’s son, Griffen had moved away and married Jean years ago, causing a rift in the family that came to a head when Griffin died in the car accident.)
The bear returns to Gilkyson ranch looking for food -- Einar sees the tracks, but the bear has moved on turning his attention towards town for a fresh source of food. Sheriff Crane Curtis (Josh Lucas) captures the bear and the animal is put on display in a cage at the local town zoo. About this same time Einar's daughter-in-law arrives on at the ranch with a granddaughter, he didn’t know he had, in tow.
After a lukewarm reception from her father-in-law, Jean and Griff move into the basement with Einar in the main house and help him take care of Mitch in the bunkhouse. Tension mounts between Einar and Jean because both are still grieving for Griffin. Mitch encourages him to make peace with his past and the family he has who is still alive by sharing, “a granddaughter, that’s a nice thing for a man to have.” Mitch’s wisdom begins to sink in and the ice around Einar’s heart begins to melt for his son’s daughter.
Jean starts working at a local coffee shop where she befriends the owner Nina (Camryn Manheim), who (along with Mitch) helps her come to understand Einar’s crusty ways and fills in the blanks of what has happened in her father-in-law’s life since Griffin’s funeral. Jean also starts a “friends with benefits” relationship with Sheriff Curtis which promises to blossom into something more, but Jean has been in a series of abusive relationships since her husband’s death and Griff can’t bring herself to trust the Sheriff when he comes to visit.
Jean grows stronger and things start looking up for her and Griff as life falls into a safe and comfortable routine, even with Einar’s bouts of crustiness, until Gary comes to Wyoming. Then all hell breaks loose….Want more? I hope you do because this is a movie you don’t want to miss.
Life Lesson
“They call’em accidents because it’s nobody’s fault.” Mitch Bradley to Einar Gilkyson
Without a doubt, each main character in this movie struggles with forgiveness.
- After years of friendship and working together, Mitch knows what makes Einar tick. We realize from the very beginning of the film that Mitch has forgiven Einar for being too drunk to help him when the bear mauled him. We also know that because of that attack, Einar quit trying to drown his grief in booze and will spend the rest of his life making amends to his friend because he wants to, not because he feels he has to. These two men love each other like brothers and there is no bitterness or recriminations between them. That is how family, biological and family by choice, is supposed to behave – loving each other when mistakes are made.
- The most spiritual character in this movie, Mitch and the bear have a relationship too. Upon seeing the bear in the cage and later meeting up, face to face with the bear on the ranch after Einar keeps his promise to free the bear. Mitch shares, “You can’t just leave him there (at the zoo) Einar. We walked into his business, hell he was just do’in what bears do, we can’t punish him for that.”
- Jean forgives herself for her poor choices in men since her husband died and reclaims some of her old strength when she confronts the two guys in Nina’s dinner. Standing up for herself she tells the two cowboys, “They're good enchiladas... served by good people. I'm a good person. I'm also one who's taken more than her fair share of shit from men. I couldn't take a pinch of crap from two little cheesedicks like you.”
- Jean’s friend Nina shares a personal story and about how life can change in a blink of an eye. She tells Jean, “we aren’t suppose to outlive our children. You have to understand that about Einar.”
- Things come to a head in the kitchen when Jean tells Einar about the night Griffin died and “how she lives with that everyday” then she tells him that she tried to go on living, but he (Einar) has been acting like, he died when Griffin died. This confrontation starts Einar on the path of figuring out what is really important in life as he comes to realize how much he cares about this family who has re-entered his life…and that accidents are, just that, accidents. In a scene at Nina’s restaurant, he tells Jean, She’s (Griff) a good girl. Good kids don’t get that way by accident.”
Forgiveness is a hard thing and many of us wrestle with it. Here is something to consider while you are trying to figure it out….
Forgiveness is not about being anyone’s doormat or a guarantee that you’ll be able to forget the transgression, it’s about making peace with your past, letting go of the anger and hurt, and moving on with your life.
An Unfinished Life Movie Cast
Jennifer Lopez as Jean Gilkyson
Morgan Freeman as Mitch Bradley
Josh Lucas as Sheriff Crane Curtis
Damian Lewis as Gary Winston
Camryn Manheim as Nina
Becca Gardner as Griff Gilkyson
Lynda Boyd as Kitty
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