Whatever you do, be wary of the real estate services of Diana (Radha Mitchell). She might find you an incredible house. But she might also break your heart, the way she does to Bradley (Greg Kinnear), the sunny, needy, mildly narcissistic coffee shop owner she seduces while helping him find a new nest after his wife (Selma Blair) leaves him for a woman.
Diana winds up dating Bradley but really she happens to be in love with a married man, David (Billy Burke), whose dark nature is the opposite of Bradley's. What they have qualifies as a little crazy (they like pushing each other's buttons) and Diana herself is a piece of work. She blows into the movie during the one spell of bad weather in a gorgeous trench coat and gradually evolves into Kathleen Turner in "Body Heat." But the movie's tone is capacious enough to harmonize her infelicities with the idealistic passion of Oscar (Toby Hemingway) and Chloe (Alexa Davalos), the young couple who fall for each other the minute she walks into Bradley's coffee shop, where Oscar works; and with the seasoned, formidable love between Harry and Esther, who are played by Morgan Freeman and Jane Alexander.
"Feast of Love" has been keenly adapted by Allison Burnett from Charles Baxter's novel. He's rejiggered the "Rashomon"-like structure into something that worked on the page but might have seemed contrived on screen, and Benton keeps it oscillating elegantly.
The director turns 75 tomorrow. He's been making movies about human decency and the essential need for people to get along for almost four decades ("Kramer vs. Kramer," "Places in the Heart") at a patient rate of about three every 10 years. And nothing in this new movie should work. It's about people walking into rooms and falling instantly in love with each other; it's full of pronouncements, platitudes, and coincidences. Harry, who, for the movie's purposes, is Bradley's best friend, hangs out in his cafe a lot, dispensing solicited advice, and happens to live next door to Bradley's new place. You don't say!
