The Greatest (2010)

Grace (Susan Sarandon) and Allen Brewer (Pierce Brosnan) are devastated when their son Bennett (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is killed. He had stopped in the middle of the road to romance Rose (Carey Mulligan) when they get hit by Jordan Walker (Michael Shannon). Grace is obsessed with her son's last minutes with the criminal Jordan waiting for him to wake up from his coma. When a pregnant Rose shows up at their door, Grace is furious and disbelieving. Allen is more supportive of the homeless Rose. Bennett's black sheep younger brother Ryan (Johnny Simmons) struggles to deal with his family and he finds Ashley (Zoë Kravitz) in his support group.The greatest part is the actors. There are some aspects that feels awkward. Grace's obsession is very obsessive. Her relationship with Rose is strange. It speaks to a dysfunction before Bennett's death. Carey Mulligan is enchanting and Pierce Brosnan is terrific. Aaron Taylor-Johnson doesn't fit the school star role. He's more of a geek. This is a sudsy soap that has plenty of family melodrama that is elevated by the first class cast.

A family is torn apart with grief when the eldest son is killed in a car crash. All the members of the family deal with the loss in different ways, alienating each other in the process. Things get even more complicated when a young woman turns up, pregnant with the dead son's child.For a lot of the time, 'The Greatest' is a very depressing movie. There's a lot of crying, or people on the verge of crying, or people trying their best not to cry, and that isn't the most pleasant viewing experience in the world. However, to give credit where credit's due, writer/director Shana Feste has done a solid job of making it engaging and watchable. The subject matter is very interesting – how do a mother and father cope when their son dies? How does a young boy cope without his older brother? How does a young woman cope without the love of her life? Feste does a very good job of portraying the different expressions of grief and, while it's a bit depressing, it's also a bit cathartic.Annoyingly though, the film starts to go a bit downhill in the final third. There's a since of harsh reality in that first two-thirds, but it gets a bit hokey towards the end. The film is immediately predictable, which is tough to avoid. But rather than offer some surprises, the movie gives you exactly what you expected, and does it with a healthy dose of Hollywood-esque melodrama.Probably the most interesting character is Grace Brewer, played by Susan Sarandon. Obsessed with knowing every detail about her son's death, she seems to border on insanity at times. Ryan (Johnny Simmons) is also excellent as the younger brother, who is living in denial. It is a subtle performance from the young actor, and his eventual breakdown is one of the most emotional moments of the entire film.And then you have the big let-down and the big show-stealer. The let-down first: Pierce Brosnan. The guy makes a great 007, a great one. But here, he felt really out of place. Brosnan is a good actor, don't get me wrong, but he has an AWFUL American accent and just isn't emotive enough. And on the opposite end of the spectrum is Carey Mulligan, the show-stealer. I love watching this girl act; she is a fantastic actress who never seems to put a step wrong. While her character in the movie might not have a lot of depth, she still manages to breathe life into it. Her personal journey is the one I felt most attached to and, again, it's predictable but interesting.'The Greatest' is a very typical independent movie. A strong cast with good performances, an unconventional story that's solidly told, but with a number of flaws that stops it from getting better commercial success. It does have enough to warrant a watch, though. You might even shed a tear or two.

First and foremost, Susan Sarandon has played this part before; many times and she never ceases to bore me. Pierce Brosnan is wonderful. He's the best thing in the movie. Carrie Mulligan's character is easy and not something that required much effort. The younger son's character is vapid and so is the character of the chick who befriends him in grief counseling. And finally, one never totally given real proof of the relationship between the character of Jennifer Ehle and Brosnan. It's vagueness is so boring...one just wants to say: "Oh for crying out loud...stop the sentimental innuendo and just lay it out there." The story is so mundane and throw-away, one almost wonders why they bothered to make this gushy and schmaltzy film anyhow. The whole thing is as if no one has ever lost kids before and no set of parents have EVER grieved the death of their child.

I complained in various occasions about the family dramas which ignore the story in order to plunge into the characters' suffering...and The Greatest is one of them. As many of these dramas, the film relies on competent performances to keep us moderately interested, but there is not too much story after all; we simply have a premise which could have been much more interesting if someone had made an effort to bring it a better structure and an authentic message.After having established the situation during the first half hour, we still have 60 minutes in The Greatest to see how every member from a family assimilates all the hard things they have to go through. And sure, the things they live are enough extreme to justify various scenes about suffering, consternation and compromise. In other words, all the actors have the opportunity of showing us their most afflicted expressions, and their solid performances certainly make The Greatest to look better than what it really is.However, I am usually not left very satisfied by these movies which consist of a constant suffering, because I feel that they exploit really tragic situations for the audience's entertainment; but I do not want to discard the possibility that its artificial sentimentality might help someone to overcome a horrible personal situation, so I think I have to give it the benefit of the doubt and give The Greatest a slight recommendation for what it is: a generic drama which results moderately interesting thanks to the performances from Susan Sarandon, Pierce Brosnan, Carey Mulligan and Johnny Simmons, whose collective presence is the only thing which makes this movie better than many dramas made for TV.