Product Details

• Actors: Kathy Bates, Rupert Everett, Meredith Eaton, Peter Sarsgaard, Lynn Redgrave
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: HBO Home Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: October 7, 2003
• Run Time: 122 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000ARD7Q
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #294,295 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Why do birds suddenly appear?", December 8, 2004

By 

D. Knouse (vancouver, washington United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unconditional Love (DVD)

I was trapped!!! I was over at my Mother's house and at the last moment, in a state of absolute resignation, I agreed to watch this movie. Before I came over I heard her relay the brief synopsis of the film over the phone and I was expecting a ridiculous yarn filled with ridiculous characters. It has all that, but it is more often than not surprisingly entertaining. Kathy Bates is the brightest star here and she portrays her "homemaker" character with great subtelty and depth, making her instantly likeable. Rupert Everett shows up about a third of the way into the film and is just one of the many character actors in this film that shine upon arrival. The major flaws appear when the viewer starts thinking too much. In fact, sometimes thinking at all will ruin a scene. For instance(s), there are some great moments when characters break out in song. Even though the scene calls for singing to occur it is still very refreshing amid all the crazy and far-fetched plotting circling around. Kathy Bates sings! She has more than just a pleasant voice. I was often impressed. She carries this film, being the proverbial "heart" of the story, but the entire cast is superb. There are even a few cameo appearances including Barry Manilow and Julie Andrews. This movie is completely unbelievable, but overall, it is a surprising and entertaining film. Recommended.

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CANT SMILE WITHOUT YOU, June 12, 2004

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unconditional Love (DVD)

What can one say about a movie that features Julie Andrews singing GETTING TO KNOW YOU on a turbulent-ridden plane AND at the funeral of a worldwide singing sensation? AND Barry Manilow joining the cast for the finale's showstopper? It may all seem mushy, maudlin and over the top, and it is! But this little gem is a delightfully entertaining movie, full of smashingly good performances. Oscar winner Kathy Bates shines as Grace Beasley, a housewife with a dream of becoming a singer, a husband who leaves her after 25 years and a trip to England for the funeral of her murdered singing idol, Victor Fox. Bates hits all the right notes and is utterly charming.
Rupert Everett as the singer's unknown lover is at first all brutish and loutish, but once we learn a little more about him, he becomes the film's ironic hero. Everett is very good in this role.
Dan Aykroyd plays Bates' husband with all the timidity and self-serving bravado that explains the lack of adventure in their lives.

Jack Noseworthy, a very underrated young actor, portrays their son, who has also left his wife (we'll get to her later!).
Peter Skaasgard (Shattered Glass) plays the window washer with a secret. His youthful innocence is appropriately fitting.
Lynn Redgrave and Stephanie Beacham are remarkable as Victor's obnoxious and grabbing sisters. Their scenes are few, but they are brilliant!!
Jonathan Pryce (who got his start in Miss Saigon) is wonderful as the Tom Jones/Elvis Presley clone, whose murder leads Bates and Everett to find his killer--the Crossbow Killer.
The movie belongs, however, to the delightful Meredith Eaton, who plays Bates' daughter-in-law. Eaton is a dwarf (really) and she has a beautiful face and is so full of energy and oomph she lights up the screen. Her take off on the red-raincoated dwarf from 'DOn't Look Now" is absolutely hilarious. I hope we see more of Ms. Eaton in the future---she is brilliant!
This movie is a pleasant surprise, and is outrageously entertaining.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unconditional Love for This Movie, August 3, 2003

By 

Aaron S. Holbritter "Aaron" (Troy, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Unconditional Love (DVD)

A common housewife seeks adventure after her husband leaves her. A Dead Pops stars gay lover seeks recogniton after his death. An unlikely trio stalks a serial killer. It may sound like three seperate movies, but P.J. Hogan's (Muriel's Wedding, My Best Friend's Wedding) Unconditional Love is a wonderful mish-mash of a movie that kept me howling.

Not everyone will love this movie. In fact, some will downright hate it, but I loved it. It received no theatrical release in the US (except for the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian film festival) and isn't set for DVD release until October, but the Starz Cable Movie network is now showing it, and boy am I glad. Not everything works in the film. The plots don't always gel, and you spend quite a bit of time trying to make sense of it all. Hogan is a bit self-indulgent, but if you trust him, and let go of your conventional idea of what a good movie should be, you'll have a hell of a lot of fun.

Bates is fantastic as a put-upon house wife Grace Beasely, who adores Pop Icon Victor Fox (Jonathan Pryce). Her husband (Dan Akroyd) tells her one morning that he doesn't have enough danger in his life, and he's leaving. Determined to start living herself, and at the urging of her dwarf daughter-in-law Maudey (ilariously portrayed by Meredith Eaton) Grace manages to score a ticket to a taping of his Christmas special. Unfortunately, that morning, Fox is found the victim of the Cross-bow Killer under the streets of Chicago.

Grace, pushed to a point of know return, decides to go to England for the singer's funeral. There she meets Dirk (Everet), his Valet and long-time companion. Dirk is holed up in the singers home, which is much in the demand of Victor's three sisters, who want to turn it into a Graceland like tourist shrine. The two form a strange bond, and decide to return to Chicago to find the serial killer and avenge his death, Dirk will claim his rightful in history place as Victor's companion, Grace will get her husband back, and maybe even Maudey will reconcile with her husband.

Yeah, that's a lot of movie. And to top it all off, there's Salley Jesse Raphael, Barry Manilow and Dame Julie Andrews to keep you on your toes. Despite all this, Hogan keeps it all going and the laughs coming. We all loved the singing numbers in Hogan's previous films (Abba, Dionne Warwick) and there's plenty of that here. It's off beat, so off beat that it's rhythm is hard to find, but that's all made up for by great performances.

Bates is central to this, and in her capable hands, the character of Grace walks a very thin line between pathetic and obnoxious, but gives her enough empathy and humor to make us route for her through it all. Everet again creates a wonderfully complex character that we start out not liking very much, but warm too as he peels back the layers. Lynn Redgrave and Stephanie Beacham are superb as two of Victor Fox's uptight sisters, and I can't say enough womderful things about Eaton. She scores with her fantastic delivery of the line: "Nobody messes with a dwarf in a red raincoat". With Everet and Bates, stalking the serial killer in the bowels of Chicago, the Housewife, Gay guy and Dwarf are a trio to be reckoned with.

I'll admit, it doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be, but so what? It tells a great, funny, poignant, often corny (we're talking Barry Manilow and Julie Andrews here) story about people needing to find fulfillment and meaning in their lives. It all wraps up in sacharine sweet happy ending and a pseudo musical number that had me grinning from ear to ear.

It was also great to see again the wonderful country house used in Merchant Ivory's "Howard's End", which serves as Fox's much coveted childhood home.

Yes, it has it's it's faults, but I love it anyway. But, after all, isn't that what you would call Unconditional Love?