As a songwriter, I noticed the title Unfinished Song, even though the box design looks like a romantic comedy kind of thing. After looking into it, and finding that it stars Terence Stamp, it seemed like it was worth a watch.
Stamp plays Arthur, who is remarkably disagreeable. He's mean, usually humorless, and perpetually worried about looking like a fool. The movie is careful to balance this against his fervent devotion to his wife, as he shows a bit of heart around her. But his concern is overly balanced for her health, rather than her happiness.
Regardless, that part of the story is actually only the first half of the story, which is considerably less interesting than the second half. Once his wife dies, he breaks off contact with his son, and eventually his retreat makes him lonely. He finds himself bonding with the chorus director. The director encourages him to try singing.
He warms to singing, but he's still very wary. He's shy about it, and still is concerned about people laughing at him.
The big finish, when he sings his solo at a festival, was - it's embarrassing to say it - really touching.
He sings Billy Joel's Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel). I've liked this song, but eventually the song became part of the acapella repertoire, and that sucked a lot of the soul out of it. This was actually a great arrangement. The song was kept to mostly his vocal, a bit of piano, and the chorus provided some backing vocals, but it wasn't overly powerful.
What made this work for me was a combination of factors. My father died about two years ago. While I didn't feel it as strongly right away, I've come to miss him more over time. Lullabye was written in response to Joel being asked about death by his daughter. Originally, the song is addressing a child. By re-framing the song to being a man addressing his deceased wife, it turns it into a song that gives him much more humanity.
Now that I've covered that portion, I should address one of the biggest problems with this movie. There's a trend of "hip grandparents" in movies. Part of it traces back to The Full Monty, or Calendar Girls. In a way, I might blame The Wedding Singer for bringing the rapping granny out. When we are first introduced to the chorus, they're singing Gnarls Barkley's Crazy. During the course of the movie, they also sing Let's Talk About Sex, Ace of Spades, and Love Shack. I don't mind these songs specifically, but I mind that they seem forced. Crazy is not an interesting song. I would blame the chorus director for picking songs solely for the camp value, rather than selecting songs for being interesting performances. But I suppose I'm a bit more picky about this kind of thing.
The friction between Arthur and his son also plays well. I don't identity with it as strongly, but it's still a very nice arc.
I was pleased with this one, but it's not for everyone.
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