The death of Bennett Brewer, a popular teenager is at the center of this story. We watch as he and his girlfriend Rose are making love. Taking her back home, Bennett makes a tactical mistake in stopping in the middle of a road to declare how much he loves her and how deeply he has fallen in love for her. Unfortunately, it is at this moment when a truck comes out of nowhere, crashing against the car. Bennett is killed after staying alive for seventeen minutes.
We watch the distraught parents at the grave site. Rose, with an arm on a sling, comes to the funeral, but she stays out of the picture. Going home, in the limo, we see Grace and Allen Brewer with their other son, Ryan, sitting in stone silence. Never do we see these people comforting one another, much less talk about the tragedy that is changing their lives forever.
Speed forward to three months after Bennett's death, when a pregnant Rose shows up at the Brewers. Mysteriously, this teenager has no one in the world, or so it appears. Later on, we learn she has a mother somewhere. Allen is sympathetic to what Rose is experiencing. Grace, on the other hand, wishes this intruder could be the one that had died, not her beloved Bennett.
The problem with "The Greatest" lays in the way the screenplay by Shana Feste, who also directed, does not make too much sense. One can make excuses for certain liberties most filmmakers take, but it is inconceivable the situation caused when Rose decide to crash with her would be in-laws, and better yet, that they went along with taking this stranger they knew nothing about into their midst. There are things that have been presented in a better way in films on this subject.
Susan Sarandon is asked to do another one of her bereaved mothers trying to cope with a big loss, something we have already seen her do, to much better results, one must add. Pierce Brosnan, whose company produced the film, and is listed as one of the people responsible for the film, shows a much vulnerable side. His Allen is carrying a lot of guilt inside him because of his involvement with a colleague. Carry Mulligan, impressive in other films where she has appeared, does not elicit the viewer's sympathy, perhaps because of the way Ms. Feste conceived her character, or the direction given to her. Michael Shannon, an interesting actor, shows up in a small role toward the end.
We watch the distraught parents at the grave site. Rose, with an arm on a sling, comes to the funeral, but she stays out of the picture. Going home, in the limo, we see Grace and Allen Brewer with their other son, Ryan, sitting in stone silence. Never do we see these people comforting one another, much less talk about the tragedy that is changing their lives forever.
Speed forward to three months after Bennett's death, when a pregnant Rose shows up at the Brewers. Mysteriously, this teenager has no one in the world, or so it appears. Later on, we learn she has a mother somewhere. Allen is sympathetic to what Rose is experiencing. Grace, on the other hand, wishes this intruder could be the one that had died, not her beloved Bennett.
The problem with "The Greatest" lays in the way the screenplay by Shana Feste, who also directed, does not make too much sense. One can make excuses for certain liberties most filmmakers take, but it is inconceivable the situation caused when Rose decide to crash with her would be in-laws, and better yet, that they went along with taking this stranger they knew nothing about into their midst. There are things that have been presented in a better way in films on this subject.
Susan Sarandon is asked to do another one of her bereaved mothers trying to cope with a big loss, something we have already seen her do, to much better results, one must add. Pierce Brosnan, whose company produced the film, and is listed as one of the people responsible for the film, shows a much vulnerable side. His Allen is carrying a lot of guilt inside him because of his involvement with a colleague. Carry Mulligan, impressive in other films where she has appeared, does not elicit the viewer's sympathy, perhaps because of the way Ms. Feste conceived her character, or the direction given to her. Michael Shannon, an interesting actor, shows up in a small role toward the end.