Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (**3/4)

Jane Fonda’s last American movie was Georgia Rule, in which she played a conservative providing a small-town refuge for her estranged, city-dwelling daughter, who’s fleeing a bad marriage, and teen granddaughter. Here, she plays a hippie providing a small-town refuge for her estranged, city-dwelling daughter (Catherine Keener), who’s fleeing a bad marriage, teen granddaughter (Elizabeth Olsen), and grandson. Not an ex-hippie either, but one still fighting the good fight, or perhaps that’s the wrong term for a pot-smoking antiwar activist still playing spiritual godmother to the faithful in Woodstock, New York.

The hippie’s lawyer daughter has become, temperamentally and politically, a conservative, the conservative’s daughter has become a vegetarian, and the son has become an aspiring auteur who films everyone constantly. Very conveniently, the story quickly pairs the conservative up with her mom’s laid-back pal (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the vegetarian with the local organic butcher (Chace Crawford), and the cameraman with the first age-appropriate girl his lens finds. This should be the setup for comedy—it’s practically the plot of Dharma & Greg — but it’s more of a homey drama with fairly plausible, mostly sympathetic characters, pretty good actors (especially Olsen), and just enough conflict not to get you too bored or riled up. Fonda’s hippie clique seem slightly on the cliché side, but her character gets beyond that. Director Bruce Beresford keeps things moving along, maybe a little too smoothly.

IMDb link

viewed 6/6/12 7:30 pm at Ritz 5 [PFS screening] and reviewed 6/7/12