The Magic of Belle Isle is a 2012 film directed by Rob Reiner. It’s a sweet, heartwarming story about a crusty drunk of a washed up writer played by Morgan Freeman. He spends the summer house sitting / dog sitting with plans to stay dead drunk all summer.
The Magic of Belle Isle gives Morgan Freeman, who writes – er, wrote – Western novels the ridiculous name of Monte Wildhorn. With a name like that, you have to write Western novels.
Next door to Monte live a family of women. A single mom and three daughters.
The neighbors are mom Charlotte (Virginia Madsen), the eldest Willow (Madeline Carroll), the middle child Finn (Emma Fuhrmann) who wants to be a writer, and the youngest Flora (Nicolette Pierini). Monte immediately falls for them all. Yes, this is a love story.
I’m sure Morgan Freeman could be a convincing alcoholic, but Monte Wildhorn is a kind hearted empath who knows just what to say to everyone, even when he’s skunk drunk. Not convincing. But he had to be like that so all the lovely women next door would fall in love with him.
Monte spends his time trying to teach the dog to fetch, helping Finn develop some imagination, and wishing he could get out of his wheelchair and dance with Charlotte in the moonlight. Spoiler alert, Morgan Freeman gets kissed by a pretty lady in this film. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Morgan Freeman get to do that before.
The townspeople love him immediately too. He convinces the mentally challenged man down the way, Carl (Ash Christian), to stop hopping like a bunny and be his trusty sidekick instead. He finds out little Flora likes elephants and writes a story about elephants for her birthday. Nothing like a sweet little girl to get a crusty drunk writing again.
All the heartwarming words like love, kindness, and understanding apply to this film. It will make you smile, maybe even cry a little. You can rent The Magic of Belle Isle on Prime or see it free on Pluto, The Roku Channel, and Tubi.