The Magic of Belle Isle Reviews

Summary Reuniting with his director from the hit film, The Bucket List, Morgan Freeman plays Monte Wildhorn, a famous Western novelist whose struggle with alcoholism has sapped his passion for writing. He takes a lakeside cabin for the summer in picturesque Belle Isle, and befriends the family next door—an attractive single mom and her young dau...

• Comedy

• Drama

The Magic of Belle Isle is a warm, human, feel-good experience about bringing out the best in people, one that brings out Morgan Freeman's best performance in years.

Reiner has crafted the perfect summer film in The Magic Of Belle Isle. No, not one with a lot of noise and battles and comic book heroes, but rather a wonderfully laid back family story set around a gorgeous lake, about the everyday problems of real people from 7 to 70.

As sticky-sweet and textureless as a bowl of pudding, though an amused central performance from star Morgan Freeman continually finds nuance and the unexpected where there ultimately isn't any.

It has some heartfelt performances and a nice, nondescript vibe, but it's largely unmemorable.

With graceless melodramatist Rob Reiner at the helm, it's predictably ironic that The Magic of Belle Isle champions the unparalleled power of imagination while displaying absolutely none of its own.

Freeman is back in Reiner's latest, The Magic of Belle Isle, which has all the pathos and saccharine of "The Bucket List" but little of the humor. It's earnest, predictable and disposable.

For a movie that spends so much time extolling the virtues of the imagination to show so little of its own is more than ironic - it's offensive.

The magic here is to have no supernatural powers, no glamorous appeals, "special" effects... just the so-called common people and their day-to-day struggles, hopes and feelings, portraited beautifully.

Very sentimental and almost instantly forgettable. Nice enough for an easy watch though I suppose and not offensive or anything. Eh, its distinctly average to ok. I wouldn't recommend it as such, no.