Unfinished Song

A fictional version of "Young @ Heart"- These senior can rock out!
I saw this film yesterday at the WXPN Music Film Festival in Philadelphia (coordinated by the Philadelphia Film Society). I truly enjoyed it. I'm not sure why Amazon doesn't list the two actors with major roles and well-known names - Terrence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave - in the main listing. But no big deal.

The film is basically a fictional version of the documentary "Young @ Heart" which came out a few years ago. (If you liked that film, you'll enjoy this as well.)It's about a group of British senior citizens who enter a choral competition by singing rock and heavy metal songs. It's funny and heartwarming. There is a serious back-story too which adds to the enjoying. And the music is great with Stamp performing a Billy Joel song and Celine Dion crooning a new Diane Warren-penned song over the closing credits.

I'll certainly await the DVD of this film to see what "bonus features" they added.
I hope you found this review both informative and helpful...
Take A Sad Song And Make It Better
What a joy it is to see consummate actors of the calibre of Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp on the big screen. And while they may not be the youthful handsome and beautiful actors we remember from "Far From the Madding Crowd" and "Camelot," they remind us that, yes, there is still a beauty in old age. (Watching this film, I was reminded that the great photographer Imogene Cunningham published near the end of her life-- I believe she was at least 90-- beautiful photographs of old people.)

Stamp as Arthur and Redgrave as his wife Marion play two characters in the twilight of their lives and are in a word, brilliant. But Gemma Arterton as Elizabeth, the music teacher, and Christopher Eccleston as Arthur and Marion's son James give outstanding performances as well. (The tension between Arthur and his son James is palpable. And the friendship that develops between the old Arthur and the young Elizabeth is one of the pluses of the film.) The plot is simple and could have been...
A Beautifully Executed Weeper
UNFINISHED SONG is a beautifully executed, British-made film that will make you cry. Though it deals with death and loss, writer/director Paul Andrew Williams' film ultimately celebrates life.

Arthur (Terence Stamp) and Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) have been married "forever". They are total opposites. He's an old grouch, devoted to her, but who is practically estranged from his grown son (Christopher Eccleston). She, on the other hand, has a warm, outgoing personality. Sadly, her doctor has told her that she only has a few weeks to live.

Marion is a member of a spirited local singing group for senior citizens, led by Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton), a young and charming music teacher. Arthur wants nothing to do with the aging choir, but he aids his wife's participation in order to placate her. Then, she passes away...and all he has is Elizabeth's friendship and the choir.

The actors in this touching drama are uniformly magnificent.

The DVD,...
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