Unfinished Song (2013)
Average Rating: 5.9/10
Reviews Counted: 91
Fresh: 58 | Rotten: 33
It's unabashedly sentimental, but thanks to reliably powerful performances from a well-rounded veteran cast, Unfinished Song proves a sweetly compelling character piece.
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Critic Reviews: 27
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 9
It's unabashedly sentimental, but thanks to reliably powerful performances from a well-rounded veteran cast, Unfinished Song proves a sweetly compelling character piece.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 3,601
Movie Info
UNFINISHED SONG is the funny and uplifting story of Arthur (Terence Stamp), a curmudgeon old soul perfectly content with sticking to his dull daily routine until his beloved wife (Vanessa Redgrave) introduces him to a spirited local singing group led by the youthful and charming Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton). This unexpected friendship and his discovery of music revitalizes Arthur's passion for new adventures and shows us all life should be celebrated at any age. (c) Weinstein
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All Critics (91) | Top Critics (27) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (33) | DVD (1)
The crescendo of two resonant careers makes the false notes of "Unfinished Song" forgivable.
Top CriticShamelessly sentimental, cute to a fault, but the acting is first-rate.
The gentle story of a marriage, and of how music can help make a broken heart whole again.
Unfinished Song is full of predictably poignant moments; you'd be lucky to survive the film dry-eyed.
[A] modest, tear-jerking charmer ... Just don't expect too much more than what shows on its paint-by-numbers surface.
Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp and those voices - their solos contain this picture like carved book-ends, vintage and lovely and still so profoundly of use.
The simple fact is that Unfinished Song works on nearly every level -- thanks in large part to the presence of Terence Stamp and the always remarkable Vanessa Redgrave.
Redgrave, like her character, is a dynamic presence when she's there and sorely missed when she's gone.
It's a sweet and well-cast film, but it's also unevenly paced and never quite rises above mediocrity.
Cheap laughs and forced sentimentality taint Redgrave and Stamp
Inspiring & genuinely moving. Terence Stamp gives an all-time best, Oscar-worthy performance.
Unfinished Song is easy to swallow and entirely void of awkward lumps. It even nourishes the soul at some base level thanks to the superlative performances from the highly laurelled cast.
It boasts two beautiful performances from Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave.
Such predictable ingredients get stale all too quickly.
Williams isn't going to offer anything but the most expected answer in the most expected fashion.
Simplistic, but blessedly so, Song is only out to warm up its audience, inducing tears and smiles as three actors keep the production palatable despite its serious lean toward a manipulative disaster.
Unfinished Song is shameless hokum, but it should please its target audience.
If Mr. Holland's Opus and the senior singers documentary Young@Heart had a baby, this would be it.
Terence Stamp is a rock star.
Audience Reviews for Unfinished Song
Super Reviewer
You may be cringing but hold on. Written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams, Unfinished song is no warmed over Glee. That show doesn't have the fortune of having Stamp, 74, and Redgrave, 76, part of its cast. These two acting legends are at the top of their games, and breathe real feeling and life into this sometimes stale script. The two almost teamed way back in 1967 for a big screen take on the musical Camelot, but Stamp wasn't sure he could ace the singing. But you hear Stamp's voice in Unfinished Song and think 'Bravo'. His is a wonderful voice, especially when singing Billy Joel's 'Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel).
Stamp turns in an award-caliber performance as a grumpy introvert on the verge of becoming forever stoic. It's a performance filled with subtlety and nuance, a superb performance. And Redgrave matches him nicely, bringing warmth and wit to a role a lesser actor may have played for cheap schmaltz. Just listen to her rendition of Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colors'. The most astonishing thing Stamp and Redgrave accomplish is their way of portraying a lifetime of marriage without lazy flashbacks. There's a line in the film that a singing voice's real power comes not from its technique but the journey. Stamp and Redgrave personify that journey beautifully. They will leave you in awe.
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Foreign Titles
- Song for Marion (DE)
- Song for Marion (UK)
The plot may seem at the outset little more than "'Pitch Perfect' for pensioners", and will likely be marketed as such, but 'Song For Marion' is by no means a laugh out loud comedy. There's a tender drama about reconciliation, growing old, and facing death wrestling the more commercial choir-contest story-line with the early scenes between Stamp and an unrecognizable Redgrave resembling a gentler take on 'Amour'. The veteran pair are fantastic and, unfortunately, the film loses something once Redgrave exits the proceedings.
Every few years, the British film industry discovers a new market and proceeds to over-saturate it. Ten years or so ago we had a spate of films aimed at Britain's huge Asian community and, recently, thanks mainly to the success of 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', we're seeing film-makers cater for an audience that's become known as "the grey pound". Most of these films, however, focus on elderly people behaving like young people, little more than contemporary non sci-fi takes on 'Cocoon'. It still seems to be a cinematic taboo to show old people as they really are, wrinkles and all, if you will.
'Song For Marion' suffers from an awkward juxtaposition of comedy and drama and relies on a cliched story-line but its quality cast make it watchable. The moment when Redgrave sings Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colors' to a disgruntled Stamp, despite the cheesiness of such a premise, manages to be one of the most touching moments you'll likely see this year.