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Griffin (Dermot Mulroney) a life insurance salesman has just been diagnosed as terminally ill with
inoperable cancer and has less than two years to live. He attends a lecture on the process of coping with death.
There he meets Phoenix (Amanda Peet) and is attracted to her. They fall in love and their relationship deepens when they discover they are soulmates. Both eventually learn that both are cancer cases. Instead of staying at the hospital for treatment, they decide to spend their remaining days having "fun", which to them means doing things they haven't done or wouldn't do under ordinary circumstances. These pranks often include risks or some kind of small infractions of the law like breaking into a theater or throwing graffiti over a water tank high up in a tower.
Griffin and Phoenix is a remake of a 1976 TV-movie which featured Peter Falk and Jill Clayburgh as the ill-starred lovers. In the present film, Amanda Peet and Dermot Mulroney look good together and their on-screen chemistry is enhanced by their good performances. But though this love story is sad and poignant and there are tearjerker elements, strangely, it fails to emotionally involve the viewer. The over sentimental and melodramatic screenplay as well as the plot development somehow do not project authenticity. This plodding story lacks vitality or that spark which could have put it in the same league as say
The Notebook and A Walk to Remember.
Since Griffin and Phoenix
is a love story, most would expect it to be innocuous or harmless. But this is not the case. Here are two people staring death in the face and they decide to live it up, to "seize the moment", since their time is short. There is nothing wrong with living life to the "fullest" but shouldn't one be always judicious in one's choice of action? In this movie, the couple does things in the spirit of "fun" but often their pranks are not only risky or harmful to themselves but are also destructive. Vandalism or breaking the law or sexual indulgence without marriage cannot be justified whether one is dying or not. Suicide has a romantic aura and is floated as a way out of their predicament, something a Christian should not consider. The lead characters also vent their frustration and perhaps anger on others like Phoenix quarreling with a stranger over the latter's son and Griffin destroying his and other peoples' cars with no provocation. We understand their state of mind but we do not condone their acts. Parental guidance is needed not only for the above but also for providing the proper perspective regarding terminal illness and dying.
(Date Reviewed: 11 January 2007)
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