Franny

A talented cast (Gere's best was [i]Shall We Dance[/i], [i]Chicago[/i] and [i]Brooklyn's Finest[/i]) wasted on another tale of pretentious character study and pointless self-destruction. And there's only one couple involved.

Franny is the most oddly engaging of character studies; it shows a subject who is annoying, insensitive and overtly manipulative - yet in every morally questionable decision that Franny makes, there's the hint of a person screaming from the inside, out - wishing someone would love and accept him like his dearly departed friend. Money can't buy you happiness, and, as we can learn from Franny, giving it away doesn't make you a better person either.

A first, I was annoyed to see Gere cast in another apparent self aggrandizing role, but a real person is revealed between layers of depression, loss, guilt & prescription drug addiction. He gives expensive gifts to the married child of his lost friends & seems generous & loving. When he can't get more drugs, he quickly transforms into a needy, suffering, unlikable person & his sadness & emptiness are revealed. Gere's performance was good. This deserved a better ending than one so sugar coated.

Where to place The Benefactor (2015)? If you ever wanted to see Richard Gere as a super rich and generous junkie on a guilt-trip.... then this movie is for you. Gere was pretty ace in this rather minor drama!

Superb acting from Gere ... but what a boring movie. My opinion here : http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/2016/01/the-benefactor-2015.html