User reviews

Six things about Peace, Love & Misunderstanding:

1. Yes, Jeffrey Dean Morgan really does look like Javier Bardem. So much so that I turned to my wife at one point and said: "I didn't realize that Bardem could speak English so flawlessly; too bad the strain of keeping that American accent has stunted his acting ability".

2. Great to see Rosanna Arquette, albeit in a bit part.

3. Woodstock looks like a really beautiful place.

4. The kids in this movie really can act, especially Elizabeth Olsen. Best Supporting Actress nominee: you heard it here first.

5. I grew up in the late 60's and early 70's and, despite some quibbles about the way in which the leftover hippies in this movie are portrayed, I was impressed by the ability of the young writers to steer away from some of the more obvious stereotypes (not completely, mind you - I don't think there is really a Kesey-esque psychedelic school bus anymore outside the props departments of the Hollywood studios). Perhaps they got the tone right because of the input from one of the era's cultural icons.

6. Thereby bringing us to Jane Fonda who, unfortunately, was ill and couldn't attend the world premiere last night in Toronto. She is just great in this film, in a role that could easily have fallen into parody (even self-parody). Sure, an ex-hippie in her 70's probably wouldn't be as heavily made up, but this is a Hollywood movie and she is a movie star. She is at once charming, spacey, provocative and slightly raunchy.

All in all, a really nicely written and lovingly directed and acted film. I hope it does well.

If you lack motivation or simply are looking for relaxation, you'll like Peace, Love & Misunderstanding. There is nothing groundbreaking in it, nevertheless, the cast delivers an excellent performance. It goes to the extent that even the actors that might annoy you don't bother you throughout the movie.

There is a lot of stereotyping here, but i didn't expect anything else from a romantic comedy involving hippies in Woodstock in the year 2011. Jane Fonda looks like a grandma every teenager would love to have, adorable despite all the escapades. She was the only reason i saw Peace, Love & Misunderstanding and i liked the way Barbarella had aged...

Funny comment in the last user review. The bus in the movie was not a prop. It just happened to be there on the property where they were filming already. If you go to Woodstock, indeed in many towns in the Hudson Valley, you will still see quite a few psychedelic painted vehicles. Many of the extras used in the film live in the area. They all just dressed and acted normally. Woodstock is Woodstock! The writing and acting may have seemed exaggerated, but if anything, it was downplayed. Check out the motorcycle gang - they are really members of the local motorcycle club. I viewed the movie at the Woodstock film festival and it was fun to watch everyone that was in the film enjoy seeing themselves on the big screen.

"I don't even know what I'm doing here." After her husband asks for a divorce uptight lawyer Diane (Keener) needs to get away. She takes her kids to visit her mother Grace (Fonda) in Woodstock. When she gets there she remembers why she left in the first place and doesn't want her mother "infecting" her children. Little by little Grace and the town begin to have an effect on the family and things begin to change. While this is not really that original of an idea the movie is done is a way that makes it seem fresh and keeps you entertained all the way through. The movie itself is very OK but the casting in this really makes the movie better then it should have been and once again proves that no matter what the movie is about and how many effects you add a movie is only as good as the actors in it. This is a perfect example of that. Jane Fonda is perfect in the role of the hippie mother but once again the young Elizabeth Olsen steals the movie and it's only a matter of time before she is winning Oscars. This is just a feel good type movie that is relaxing to watch and is enjoyable throughout. Overall, not really much to it but it is a good movie to put in and enjoy. I give it a B+.

I was looking for a light, enjoyable film for a Friday night after a long work week, and this one fit the bill. Sure, it's not a perfect film, as many reviewers point out. The jokes often fall flat, the plot has lots of clichés, Jane Fonda is highly spirited but a bit hyperbolic, the goddess night made me cringe, and the sugary romance (especially the young teen romance) can pour on thick as honey. Still, there are lots of fun tidbits, particularly Jane with her chickens and naked lovers roaming freely about the house. And what a house it is--an awesome collection of kitsch and clutter, worth seeing the film just for the house and the lush rolling fields and flowers. The chickens steal a couple of scenes, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan was a great surprise (I don't watch television, so his charms were new to me). If you don't go into the film with too many expectations, it's worth watching. I needed mindless stress relief, and this film certainly did the trick.

It does seem a shame to cast three generations of compelling actresses as a dysfunctional family and then let them drown in a sea of tired character clichés and pop psychology babble. But that's exactly what happens in director Bruce Beresford's 2012 dramedy, a touchy-feely, throwaway vehicle for Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, and Elizabeth Olsen ("Martha Marcy May Marlene"), who all try hard to rise above the broad brushstrokes that mark the superficial script by first-time screenwriters Joseph Muszynski and Christina Mengert. There isn't a single surprise that would make anyone reconsider the trite nature of the cross-generational conflict on display here, and Beresford doesn't help matters by the film's odd pacing where the basic set-up is handled in the first three minutes and then has characters go through character transformations in the most formulaic manner.

The story begins as Diane, an uptight Manhattan lawyer, is suddenly informed by her husband that he wants a divorce. Instead of discussing the matter, she packs up her two teenaged children – self-righteous vegan daughter Zoe and aspiring filmmaker son Jake – and visits her mother Grace up in Woodstock even though they haven't spoken in twenty years. Of course, Grace is Diane's exact opposite, a free spirit hippie artist, a political rabble-rouser and a successful pot dealer, so naturally conflict ensues immediately. While the perennially glum Diane glares judgmentally at Grace, both Diane and Zoe, of course, find love with local men who are their polar opposites - Diane with a laid-back carpenter and singer named Jude, Zoe with a sensitive butcher named Cole. In the meantime, Jake annoyingly videotapes life in Woodstock while crushing on a girl who works in a local coffee shop.

All the while, grandma Grace espouses spiritual bromides to everyone about how they need to live their lives to the fullest. It's a pleasure to see the 74-year-old Fonda look fit and loose-limbed as Grace even though I was getting the nagging sense she should be doing a lot more than play this dotty caricature. Playing against type, Keener seems particularly one-note as the mostly dour Diane, and some of her natural looseness as an actress would have helped bring more dimension to the role. Current indie "it girl" Olsen shows welcome moments of vulnerability that are severely blunted by Zoe's generally insufferable nature. Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("P.S. I Love You") appears to be specializing in rebound love interests, and he plays the emotionally accessible Jude with easy charm. Chace Crawford ("Gossip Girl") seems to be playing a younger version of the same male stereotype as Cole inexplicably entranced by Zoe.

Nat Wolff ("The Naked Brothers Band") provides mostly comic relief as hopelessly naïve Jake. I'm not sure why Rosanna Arquette is in the film since she's given next to nothing to do. The cinematography by Andre Fleuren nicely captures the bucolic landscape of upstate New York, but I found the original music by Spencer David Hutchings more intrusive than evocative. For his part, Beresford looks to be resuscitating key moments from Fonda's own film of parental alienation, "On Golden Pond", but a better story model would have been Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right" which lent layers of emotional complexity to a family unit challenged by a lack of forgiveness. After all, outside of this formulaic film, life just isn't as groovy as Grace would have you believe.

This movie is splendid! I had forgotten that Jane Fonda is an excellent actress. The scenery, with the landscape and vintage "props", is a wonderful reminder of the years that birthed care for the earth, inclusivity, and questioning the status quo. The story profiles the inevitable misunderstandings between generations, and the life lessons we can teach one another. Perhaps this is a movie enjoyed more by women, but many young men participated in the hippie culture, and many of today's women and men were conceived in fields of wildflowers. Although the film profiles a narrow 10-to-15-year span in our history, it provides an intimate glimpse into that era, to be enjoyed by multiple generations. I hope to see it again soon, because there was simply too much to "take in" in one viewing.

What is the point of this self-absorbed production? I guess it's mom's inability to face reality. The story drags and drags and drags...uh, what? Oh, yeah, Mom decides to visit her past by bringing her uppie-ish Manhattan trained teenagers to experience the Woodstock generation's deep convictions to peace and love. A premise this mother has spent her adult life rejecting. Predictable every moment.

Jane Fonda as one reviewer here commented never experienced the Woodstock moment although she was a most prominent protester against the USA-Vietnam police action. Fonda is good and is worth watching. In fact all the performers are good. Too bad we don't get more of Kyle McLachlan.

Yes, comedy! It's a refreshing look at the culture of the 60's and the cynicism of those who look back and try to make sense of all the facets of American society that were called into question during the period. The facets still exist! Out of it comes a funny portrayal of what the confusion/clarity looked like (looks like) as people worked it out, tried to love one another, and made mistakes, as only humans can...with great intentions all firing at once. Congratulations to the director, the cast, the writers, for this delightful romp. I laughed, learned humility, and relished the human comedy that we are, now, as we try to still (once again) Love over generational lines - adult to child, etc. God Bless you for the effort - I hope those who can relax, let go, without a toke, or with, can enjoy your message for what it is - human - very funny, sometimes just plain dumb. Please do not over intellectualize it, just enjoy the darn thing! This movie actually had a kind of "Doris Day" feel to it. Delightful and simple on the surface, but underneath, lots of some good messages about healing one another. I've read what some critics have said, and I wanna say, go to church, get over yourself, calm down, just enjoy the silliness of life, be reverent - be still. Kids do it and so should we, then we will hear each other!!!!

Diane (Catherine Keener) is a straight laced NYC lawyer. Her husband (Kyle MacLachlan) has asked for a divorce. She takes her daughter Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) and son Jake (Nat Wolff) to stay with her hippie mother Grace (Jane Fonda) in Woodstock. Diane has been estranged from her irresponsible mother ever since Grace sold weed to her wedding guests resulting in her getting Grace arrested. Grace introduces Diane to Jude (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who turns out to have a history with Grace. Zoe is a vegetarian who falls for butcher Cole (Chace Crawford). Jake is an introvert who dreams of being the next Werner Herzog. He falls for local girl Tara (Marissa O'Donnell).

I like the two kids especially Olsen, and I like her relationship with Crawford. The odd thing about Diane's relationship with her mother Grace is that I agree with Diane. In the end, Grace never changes in her irresponsible ways and Diane is berated into accepting Grace by Jude. The whole hippie culture portrayed here is one big stereotype after another. It's almost as old as Jane Fonda. None of that is appealing or funny. And that student film in the end is truly horrible. I wanted the kid to be actually good. I wanted the kid that is going to be the next Herzog.

Three talented actresses (Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener and Elizabeth Olsen) provided the drive for this over-simplistic view of intergenerational differences and the search for happiness. While clichés abound, the plots twists can be seen miles away but yet occur in the blink-of-an-eye without any rationalization, and the characters border on being one- dimensional, this movie is a guilty pleasure. I would probably credit the ability to overcome this movie's weaknesses to the acting skills and the on-screen charisma of Ms. Fonda and Ms. Keener.

The male characters are even more one-dimensional than the female leads. The only person to get less to do than the abandoning husband (Kyle MacLachlan) is the talented Patricia Arquette who may have only 1 or 2 lines in the movie which require a double take to confirm her presence. I suspect that post-production was not kind to whatever other dialog must have been originally written for her.

While the movie has many weaknesses, the stellar soundtrack and magnificent cinematography are not among them.

Clocking in at barely over 90 minutes, I would recommend this movie to those who do not mind a little fluff every now and then.

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I have never been one for the hippie lifestyle, and yet "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding" tries to convince its audience that free loving, loose morals and zero financial security can be better for the soul and family relations than a job, responsibility and a house in the city. Diane (Catherine Keener), single after being divorced from her husband, moves her two teenagers to Woodstock, just for the weekend, to live with her hippie mother Grace (Jane Fonda).

She thinks the country will be good for them but is wary of her mother's unorthodox ways. So was I. The film really isn't trying to preach, which is good, but it is trying to be yet another dysfunctional family dramedy, which is not good. The weekend turns into a week and then a summer, because, surprise, Diane finds solace and romance in the Woodstock music and the quirkiness of a small town.

The hippie characters were much more real than just stereotypical caricatures probably because actual townsfolk were a majority of the bit-players. There was way more care put into the writing of the supporting characters than you would usually find in a similar Hollywood production. The "hippie-ness" of it all was less extreme, definitely toned down, but it still doesn't mean that they can be emotive and deserving of our sympathies and empathies, let alone be the subject of a dysfunctional family dramedy (not that anybody should be).

The supporting characters that I did like were Diane's two teenage kids, Jake (Nat Wolff) and Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen). Jake is a geeky, aspiring filmmaker, insecure and inexperienced around girls. His small coming-of- age steps seemed natural and very endearing. Zoe is a more self-assured, independent 16 year-old, but seems to be following in her grandmother's footsteps, more than her mother's, and one starts questioning how well she knows herself. She also has great chemistry with her love interest, Cole (Chace Crawford). Starting to become the norm, Olsen was the best of the cast.

The cast also includes Jane Fonda and the usually underrated Catherine Keener, but their selfish, grating characters with Fonda's inconsistency and Keener's blandness is what costs "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding" a shot of at least being passable entertainment. It could have gotten another star or two if the kids were the leads.

It is not often that a film appears that looks like it may just be background noise for a lazy evening and turns our to be a jewel of a movie. But that is what happens when discovering PEACE, LOVE AND MISUNDERSTANDING. Written by first timers Christina Mengert and Joseph Muszynski who also are the film's producers, and directed with splendid sensitivity for character and detail by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies, Bride of the Wind, Mao's Last Dance, etc), this is a story that so easily could have dropped of the edge of the cliff as a flop but instead becomes a transporting study of family, of coming of age, of second chances, and of fining self in this often absurd world in which we live. The cast, down to the most minuscule bit player, is outstanding: this film is likely to be a career boost for all involved.

Uptight obsessive compulsive lawyer Diane (Catherine Keener) lives in New York and at film's opening is told by her husband Mark that he wants a divorce. Diane decides to escape the disorganized trauma of that announcement by taking her two teenagers - geeky video camera addict and virginal Jake (Nat Wolff) and vegan daughter Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) - to visit Diane's hippy mother Grace (Jane Fonda, in a brilliant performance) whom she hasn't seen for 20 years (Grace sold Marijuana to Diane's friends at Diane's wedding and has never been forgiven): Grace lives in Woodstock, a town that has retained its hippie flavor since the 1960s. Thinking they will only stay for a couple of days the visiting fractured family ends up staying on while Diane slowly appreciates the strange and wacky but intensely felt life her mother has embraced. Diane meets Jude (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who slowly breaks down Diane's carefully controlled existence, Zoe is attracted to the local butcher Cole (Chace Crawford, definitely a talent to watch) and despite her loathing of slaughtering animals for food she gradually discovers similarities in the tow of them, and Jake falls for Tara (Marissa O'Donnell) - his first physical experience. Stir all those ingredients, add some hilarious evening of women howling at the full moon, some surprises in character development, and town full of retro-flowerchild status and the film just soars.

One of the many reasons this film works so well is the outstanding performance by the always beautiful and gifted Jane Fonda, but Keener, Morgan, Olsen, Crawford and Wolff are also in top form. For an American comedy that leaves the viewer feeling on top of the world, this movie has it all.

Grady Harp

Painfully cliche. Jane Fonda's character is an embarrassment to her once valid skills as an actress. The dialogue pretends to be intelligent without saying anything of substance, simply throwing up lines recorded from some cheesey hippie love in from the 70's. If you are mindless and enjoy movies that jam tired, cliche characters down your throat then this is a movie you will enjoy. Good luck finishing it, I could not....

This is a really great movie.

I cannot understand why anyone would say otherwise because there is not a dull moment in this movie as it has a bit of everything, from laughing to crying because the actors are able to have you feel what they are portraying.

It is a movie about accepting others for who they are and most importantly it is about forgiveness and learning to enjoy life.

I must add what wonderful acting there is from all of the entire crew. Anytime a movie can pull you in to the point of being able to feel their emotions then you know that they have done a great job.

Jane Fonda is just terrific. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was as amazing as he always is. I have to add how cute Chance Crawford is.

It is a great reminder that sometimes we all need to slow down and take a look around us and just enjoy the moment we are in.

Kudos to Bruce Beresford for making a really great film with heart and soul. All the cast are amazing - especially Jane Fonda as the grandmother, she really pops in this one. Chase Crawford is hot and homegrown, as is the Javier Bardem - look a like - Jeffrey Dean Morgan. We'd like to see more of him. Catherine Keener is believable as the uptight attorney. I felt a little cheated that Patricia Arquette was not in more scenes, one can only surmise she hit the cutting room floor. Loved seeing the Woodstock locals and the location used as characters. I was in the story for the complete ride. Timeless story. A must see. Why is it only in one theater here in New York?

I have watched it twice in the last 24 hours with sister. We both loved it and feel it is the next Steel Magnolias. Hubby even tolerated it and we heard him chuckle a few times. I should have been at Woodstock instead of Joplin MO and born way too late! Jane Fonda's role was the mother i wished I had. A pot-dealing hippie type that was so believable. Her uptight daughter, NYC attorney played by Catherine Keener was great as well. The children's roles were sweet and had just enough sibling rivalry that it was real if not a bit too sweet. The guys in the film were all hot and made you want to take them home for yourself, even though both are too young for me! giggle giggle!