This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
There's some inherent humor in seeing Jane Fonda, the poster child of '60s liberal activism, playing an aging Woodstock hippie in "Peace, Love & Misunderstanding" — but not enough that rookie screenwriters Joseph Muszynski and Christina Mengert shouldn't bring something more to this undernourished cross-generational comedy.
Fonda is delightful as Grace, a Woodstock icon who welcomes her uptight right-wing daughter, Diane (Catherine Keener), home after Diane's husband, Mark (Kyle MacLachlan), declares he wants a divorce. Along for the ride are Diane's two kids, college activist Zoe (Elizabeth Olsen) and video-obsessive teen Jake (Nat Wolff), who have never met their grandma.
The story has all three transplanted Manhattanites finding romance in Woodstock: Diane with a troubadour furniture maker (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Zoe with a thoughtful butcher (Chace Crawford), and Jake with a kindred teen spirit (Marissa O'Donnell).
Director Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy") fosters some easygoing chemistry between Olsen and Crawford, and brings out Keener's prickly charm in the high-strung Diane's uneasy relationship with her pot-growing mom.
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'Peace, Love & Misunderstanding'
Opens Friday, June 8, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated R for drug content and some sexual references; 96 minutes. For more movie reviews, visit nowsaltlake.com/movies.