Themes: Midlife Crises, Breakups and Divorces, Obsessive Quests
Main Cast: Kathy Bates, Rupert Everett, Meredith Eaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Lynn Redgrave
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 121 minutes
Plot
What's a middle-aged woman to do when her husband walks out on her and her favorite pop star is murdered by a serial killer? Writer/director P.J. Hogan explores this and many other pressing questions in Unconditional Love, a comic murder-mystery he devised with his wife and co-screenwriter, Jocelyn Moorhouse. Their heroine, Grace Beasly (Kathy Bates), finds her placid Midwestern life turned upside down after she loses both of the aforementioned men in her life: her husband (Dan Aykroyd) and the Tom Jones-like, Welsh singing star Victor Fox (Jonathan Pryce), whom she unabashedly worships. After Fox's death, Grace impetuously flies to England for his funeral. Paying an uninvited visit to his countryside estate, she discovers Dirk Simpson (Rupert Everett), Fox's longtime, secret live-in lover, who's also in a state of shock following the senseless murder. Together, the two team up, traveling back to the Windy City to find the infamous "Crossbow Killer" who took Fox's life. After receiving a fall 2002 release in the U.K., Unconditional Love had its U.S. premiere on the Starz network in August 2003. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Review
Although its sentimentality, serious life lessons, and campy humor sometimes coexist less than peacefully, this modest outing from Muriel's Wedding director P.J. Hogan goes down easily thanks to the low-key performances of Kathy Bates and Rupert Everett. Bates, as jilted homemaker Grace Beasley, and Everett, as the secret gay lover of Barry Manilow-esque crooner Victor Fox, never oversell the feather-light material or take themselves too seriously. Even during the film's thoughtful moments, their performances are assuredly low-key. That leaves the broad comedy in the hands of supporting players Meredith Eaton (as a wonderfully profane daughter-in-law who just happens to be a little person) and Lynn Redgrave (as Fox's grasping, hypocritical sister). Peter Sarsgaard plays a window washer with the soul of a poet and a terrible secret, but he's far more convincing in his enigmatic early scenes than he is during the exaggerated denouement. Dan Aykroyd, as Grace's estranged husband, plays it surprisingly straight, but Jonathan Pryce gets to have fun as the retro pop singer whose death sets the plot in motion. If the script had been a little more over the top and a tad less concerned with Oprah-style epiphanies, Unconditional Love might not have gone straight to cable in the United States. As is, instead of a big-screen misfire, it's a pleasant small-screen trifle. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Mark L. Sylbert - Art Director, Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Mary Vogt - Costume Designer, George Parra - First Assistant Director, P.J. Hogan - Director, Robert Jones - Editor, Michael De Luca - Executive Producer, Gil Netter - Executive Producer, Brian Witten - Executive Producer, James Newton Howard - Composer (Music Score), Richard Sylbert - Production Designer, Remi Adefarasin - Cinematographer, Jocelyn Moorhouse - Producer, Jerry Zucker - Producer, Patricia Whitcher - Producer, Daniel Clancy - Set Designer, Hank Garfield - Sound/Sound Designer, Jocelyn Moorhouse - Screenwriter, P.J. Hogan - Screenwriter
