Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2011)

From my favorite movies..

Fresh and Exciting

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Although I was alive during the hippie invasion, at that time, I was in survival mode due to various events. Therefore, the flower child culture did not penetrate my thinking. Only as much as the Vietnam Era was brought to me via the media was I conscious of that lifestyle.In '69, I dropped out of school, enlisted in the military, and ended up in the Middle East. It was there that I got a sampling of a weed induced head, but mixed with the tunes I most loved, within traditional country music and jazz, the psychedelic lifestyle still didn't emerge.In '72, I experienced an amazing conversion to Christianity through which I learned to love the absolute truths found in Scripture. That love challenged me to be obedient to a godly moral code. Despite how nice something may feel, it still can be immoral behavior.Grace's pot smoking, I have no trouble with as I am a proponent of its use, especially for health reasons, Also after having performed for decades as a bass player/singer in countless country bars, I view alcohol as being more potentially life threatening.Within this film exists a kind of coming-of-age theme, as well as one that insists that peace and love are the products of sex, the latter being the message that is, to me, off putting. Another theme, one that best resonates with me, is the release of burden, a birth of freedom through a refusal to hold onto hurts. It is about our responsibility to forgive those who trespass against us.However, freedom must have mixed with it, in order to be genuine, godly virtue, not some whimsical identification with nature that is self-defining, as Grace's unspecified spiritual connection to whomever or whatever. To love oneself, one must know how to die to oneself, to set aside every weight that is so easily besetting and to build into one's life a truly stabilizing foundation based on righteous principles.In this film, the laying aside of a former bad relationship to replace it with "free love" is a call to disenchantment and disillusionment. Okay, so Grace seems free, but she endorses sex whenever, with whomever, and encourages it without hesitation.There is nothing mentioned about what God says regarding fornication, or how our lives ought to be centered around a love for Jesus that helps us to strive against unrighteousness. Instead, we are called to let go of all restraint. A bad mistake.

Towards the end, Jane Fonda reads excerpts of poetry that tied the film together and left me inspired to watch the ending over and over again.Song of Myself, Walt Whitman (from Leaves of Grass, first published in the 1855 edition)And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own; And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my sisters and lovers; And that a kelson of the creation is love; [5]It may be if I had known them I would have loved them, It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon out of their mothers'laps, And here you are the mothers' laps. [6]It is not chaos or death—it is form, union, plan—it is eternal life—it is HAPPINESS. [50]

Found this film light hearted and comical all the way through. After reading lots of comments about the film I saw it on sky one morning and caught the last 10mins seemed OK. then 2 days later I caught 10 mins of it at the start before work after catching bits and bobs I finally watched it on Tv1000 Drama and well Brilliant, A mother and her 2 kids escape the city and end up at her mothers in Woodstock. Her mother not only runs local book club but holds drink and weed parties regular, Watched it twice now so bought it.. something to cheer one up when there's not a lot on the box. Well worth watching. Ignore all negative comments, watch the film and you decide. :)

"I don't even know what I'm doing here." After her husband asks for a divorce uptight lawyer Diane (Keener) needs to get away. She takes her kids to visit her mother Grace (Fonda) in Woodstock. When she gets there she remembers why she left in the first place and doesn't want her mother "infecting" her children. Little by little Grace and the town begin to have an effect on the family and things begin to change. While this is not really that original of an idea the movie is done is a way that makes it seem fresh and keeps you entertained all the way through. The movie itself is very OK but the casting in this really makes the movie better then it should have been and once again proves that no matter what the movie is about and how many effects you add a movie is only as good as the actors in it. This is a perfect example of that. Jane Fonda is perfect in the role of the hippie mother but once again the young Elizabeth Olsen steals the movie and it's only a matter of time before she is winning Oscars. This is just a feel good type movie that is relaxing to watch and is enjoyable throughout. Overall, not really much to it but it is a good movie to put in and enjoy. I give it a B+.