An Unfinished Life (2005)

Image credit: AN UNFINISHED LIFE: Doane Gregory

FREEMAN AND REDFORD

I can't even remember when we made it,'' deadpans Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules) of his long-delayed family drama. Originally shot during the spring of 2003, Life — which was adapted by the Virginia Korus Spraggs from husband Mark's book — stars Jennifer Lopez as single mom Jean Gylkison, who reluctantly moves in with her estranged father-in-law, Einer (Robert Redford), a curmudgeonly Wyoming rancher, to escape an abusive ex-boyfriend (Damian Lewis). Along to help the distressed missus make the transition are Morgan Freeman's grizzly-on-the-outside, gentle-on-the-inside wounded ranch hand and Josh Lucas' friendly local sheriff. ''One might think that an old Swede like me would know very little about the American West, but I'm attracted to anything that has characters that leap off the page and come alive for me,'' explains Stockholm native Hallström, who chose our neighbor to the north as a fill-in for the land o' bison. Plus, ''one of our main cast members was a bear.'' Only in Canada-pretending-to-be-America, folks.