Watch The Magic of Belle Isle For Free

Please don't spend money on this.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Monty Wildhorn (Morgan Freeman) is an alcoholic wheelchair bound Western writer who has stopped writing. His nephew Henry (Kenan Thompson) gets him a place to stay in Belle Isle for the summer. The place is next door to recently divorced Charlotte O'Neil (Virginia Madsen) and his three girls Finnegan (Emma Fuhrmann), Willow (Madeline Carroll) and Flora (Nicolette Pierini). Finnegan loves to tell stories.I hoped that Rob Reiner retains an ounce of originality but feared that this would be sadly uninspired. This ends with too much of my fears coming true. These are great actors doing their best. The story has its share of eccentric characters. I really like Freeman with Fuhrmann. This could be a sweet kids movie especially if it concentrated on the girl instead. It's depressingly predictable to have the May to December romance. With such great actors, this has the opportunity to be good but the material doesn't have much meat on the bones.

The story is well written and the actors are great. Thank you. I've watched it 3 or 4 times now and still enjoy every minute of it. It speaks again of being family even with strangers who come into your life and bring you joy but not on the initial meeting. You can never judge a book by its cover is so true in this situation. How many times have you met someone in passing and have remained friends for years? We can all relate to that I think. Morgan does an outstanding performance as being a bitter man after his wife's passing and does a great job of turning the page on his life with a little help from his nephew who keeps pushing him in a subtle way to get over it.

Granted, this is the kind of "feel good" movie I like. Morgan Freeman is excellent as the former writer who seems to have given up on life since the death of his wife (been there, done that). What he needs is a reason to live the rest of his life somewhere that matters. He finds that with a family of 4 (mom divorcing, and 3 girls missing their old life with dad and all) who are the friendly people next door. Lots of really good funny one liners. And, a promise from the former author to sue the operators of a bus service if they weren't providing accessible services...good for him! I guess it might be too stereotypical for some people, but I loved all the characters! Nice to watch when you want to watch a movie that's not too heavy and has a happy ending. Works for me!

I wanted to like this but I nearly choked on the clichés and plot holes and to top it all off the ending straight out of Hollywoodland Central.Really good cast, apart from some stilted children (look maw, I'm acting school), plot holes to drive a tank through and an odd character with a mental disability used as a butt for jokes. Offensive.75 year old man in a wheelchair with unusable left arm (except at the end when everyone forgets and he hugs a child)falls in love with a 50 year old woman who reciprocates.She plays piano at a classical level, has no visible means of financial support, he's a jaded alcoholic western novel writer who speaks classical English all the time.Plothole # 8: He takes a gun to a children' birthday party and threatens a clown with it, a clown who makes his living off renting a blow-up castle that one of the children punctures. I'd be one angry clown losing my income like this but no, he skulks off leaving everything behind.The grounds of this movie is littered with such contrivances.It would have been somewhat redeemed with a better ending. But no, I guess the preview audience wanted that old Harlequin thing...shame.4 out of 10.