Search
What's Hot
Day-by-Day Fall Schedule
Idol Winner Speaks!
Jim Parsons Comes Out
Game of Thrones Star's Sex Stare

Spring Forward

2000, Movie, R, 110 mins

Spring Forward: Review

starstarstarstar
With a heart as big as its setting — the great outdoors — Tom Gilroy's debut feature is a little obvious, but it's an excellent showcase for the criminally underused Ned Beatty. Beatty stars as Murph, an unassuming senior employee with Connecticut's Parks and Recreation department who takes a new employee, Paul (Liev Schreiber), under his wing. Paul has just finished an 18-month stretch in the state pen for armed robbery — broke, he attempted to rob a Dunkin' Donuts — and with the help of a pile of self-help books, he's determined to put his life back on track. Murph, meanwhile, is approaching retirement and thinking about wrapping things up. Over the course of a year (the film opens in the late spring and ends in the dead of winter), a deep bond develops between these two very different men: Murph becomes the father Paul wishes he had, while Paul helps fill the hole left in Murph's heart by the son he's losing to a terminal illness. It comes as no surprise that Gilroy was first a playwright and a theater director: The film is essentially a series of loosely connected scenes confined to a single location (usually a public park), and while written expressly for the screen, it feels boxed-in and stagy. (Gilroy fools around with jumpcuts and includes a dream sequence and interstitial footage of folks going about their daily lives, but it still feels like a play. And please, no more bonding scenes involving a joint.) Schreiber is good, deftly balancing a New England accent and exuding an awkward charm, but this is Beatty's movie. A wonderfully warm, naturalistic actor, Beatty is usually relegated to supporting character roles, and it's a rare treat to seem him take center stage. leave a comment --Ken Fox
Are You Watching?
Spring Forward
Loading ...
Advertisement

Our Partners

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. American Idol
  2. NCIS
  3. Big Bang Theory
  4. Voice
  5. Person of Interest
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Jessica Simpson
  2. Khloe Kardashian
  3. Kate Middleton
  4. Maria Menounos
  5. Kim Kardashian
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. Avengers
  2. Battleship
  3. The Dictator
  4. Dark Shadows
  5. What To Expect When You're Expecting
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Revenge
  2. So You Think You Can Dance
  3. Modern Family
  4. Days of our Lives
  5. Days of our Lives
more top videos