Come hungry, leave poignant

"Feast of Love" is an appropriate title for a movie that is an entire case study on falling in love, heartbreak, sex and relationships, both new and old. Revolving around five stories of couples falling in and out of love, the film certainly does its best to force the theme down your throat. \nBased on the book by Charles Baxter, the film is set in Portland, Oregon, and interweaves characters and their exploits with love and loss. There is coffee-shop owner Brad Thomas (Greg Kinnear) who becomes accustomed to failed marriages, his employee Oscar (Toby Hemingway) who instantly falls in love with new-girl-in-town Chloe (Alexa Davalos) and Diana (Radha Mitchell) who is in love with a married man. \nProviding the story with balance and insight, Professor Harry Stevenson (Morgan Freeman) is the wise overseer. Freeman is the film's father figure, the (Bruce) Almighty if you will. He narrates his observations through conversations with his wife Esther (Alexander), though we come to realize that he too has experienced great loss. \nDirector Robert Benton, who won an Academy Award for his film "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979), takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster ride. One minute a character is falling madly in love, and in a subsequent scene a different character loses a lifelong love. It's almost too much sentiment to cram into a two hour movie. The film could have benefited from a more in-depth study of any one of the characters, but instead Benton relies heavily on the predictability of love-and-loss romance plots: He who has lost must gain -- which makes for an almost complete lack of internal conflict. The plot may be endearing, but it is too straightforward. Furthermore, some of the dialogue in the more poignant scenes is cheesy and feels forced. \nThe acting, anchored by Academy Award winner Freeman ("Million Dollar Baby"), is the film's saving grace. Relative newcomers Hemingway and Davalos also churn out top notch performances that will certainly guarantee them future work. \n"Feast of Love" may not win many awards, but it's a good film to score points with a lady friend.