Magic of Belle Isle 2012 DVD Release Date
- Actors: Morgan Freeman, Virginia Madsen
- Directors: Rob Reiner
- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Subtitles: Spanish
- Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
- Number of discs: 1
- Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
- Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
- DVD Release Date: September 18, 2012
- Run Time: 109 minutes
Customer Reviews
MAGIC OF BELLE ISLE (Dir. Rob Reiner, 2012, 110 minutes) is a nice, quiet family film that is also a Morgan Freeman extravaganza (comparatively speaking). I just loved it, but it may not be to everyone's liking in this hyperkinetic, wire-fu-violence-driven cinema atmosphere.
Freeman plays grumpy, washed-up alcoholic Western writer Monte Wildhorn (great imagination with the character's name, but don't let that put you off). He decides to summer-sit a house at a location I understand is Greenwood Lake, NY - but is called Belle Island. This confused me in several ways: the title says "ISLE" but I'd swear on someone's bones that they call it "island". Then, they are clearly not on an island but at the seashore, with some weird rocklike island off the coast, also called Belle Isle (or Belle Island, take your pick).
Anyway, Wildhorn has long since abandoned writing and devotes himself to guzzling booze. That is, until a fine lady and her three young daughters enter his life and cheer him right up, the end. I have to say it is a miracle and a marvel to see Freeman giving such a performance with his sadly acquired handicaps - and elements of his wheelchair-bound character reflect that loudly here.
There is no swearing, no ugliness of situation and no awkward stupidity in the storyline. I see all that as major in this day and age. One bit of language is "Jesus H. Christ" which is so hilariously surprising I hit the ceiling laughing when I heard the lines. Fred Willard as a local eccentric certainly spices the thing nicely. Virginia Madsen hands in a worthy performance as the divorced mother of three girls, and the girls themselves are charming (with the exception of the unfortunate Madeline Carroll, who is always cast as a nasty little teen witch and incidentally is some sort of cousin of my wife's).
Saying which, my wife caught a gander at some of this film and sourly asked me what was so special about it. Well, I have reviewed it, it has a happy ending in spite of the wacky characters, and is fully a Morgan Freeman movie. If that doesn't tell you what is special about it, then you are a lost cause indeed.
Perhaps in that instance you'd prefer a zombie-killing video game instead.
Morgan Freeman plays Monte Wildhorn, a famous Western novelist whose passion for writing hits an impasse. He takes a lakeside cabin for the summer in picturesque Belle Isle, befriending the family next door an attractive single mom (Virginia Madsen) and her young daughters who help him find inspiration again.
DVD Release Date on Magic of Belle Isle 2012
