Or is it actually rock bottom? One thing is for sure, you need someone relatable and likable like Gere to portray this character. Otherwise the viewer would have a lot of trouble to watch this in general and feel something (empathy for example). His character is not completely lost when we begin. Quite the opposite that is, until we jump forward in time (and jump back and forth a couple of times).It's to keep the intensity and the tension up for the viewers. Also to keep them guessing, though I reckon you can guess more or less what happened, that made him the way he is. But it's not as much about that as it is about the journey itself. And the question if there is still time for salvation ... It's a drama and it's slow paced of course, not everyone's cup of tea

This film tells the story of an older man who tries to resolve his guilt from years ago, by being a generous benefactor of a hospital and if a newly wed couple."The Benefactor" is a touching story that shows a man trouble by his past unintentional deed. He tries to make things up, but unfortunately his good intentions do not always go the intended way. Richard Gere is convincing as a troubled soul who has unlimited resources but still cannot wash away the inner demons. No matter what he does, he is still shown be tormented. It's a heavy story, be prepared for it before you watch it.

The Benefactor, Franny Watts, (Richard Gere) meddles in the lives of Olivia (Dakota Fanning) and Luke (Theo James) who are expecting their first baby. Olivia was the daughter of Franny's best friends who were killed in an auto accident. Olivia does not know that Franny caused the accident her parents were in. Franny is hooked on pain killers (from the accident) and needs more meds that he hopes Luke, a doctor, will prescribe for him. Everything about Franny is quid pro quo. Every story has a beginning, a middle and an ending or it should have. Here we are in the middle with flashbacks to the beginning and it stays in the middle . Franny goes out of control as he needs meds no one will give him any more and he needs to go into rehab and he is not willing to do that. We are stuck in this middle as Franny is. Before we learn what was just mentioned above we got the feeling this may be quite an uncomfortable movie with the possibility of Franny making moves on Olivia who is many years his junior. That doesn't happen, but that was our take early on as we were squirming every which way on the couch hoping that didn't happen. We got the feeling that much of the story was not told. Hence we are in the middle of the story with no resolution in sight. All this causes us to wonder why this movie was made in the first place. Of course we can read into the last scene and make up the ending, but would we be right? Hmmmmm………The acting all around was good, but it needed a story resolution to make everything complete. (5/10)Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes.

Richard Gere's character is a neurotic, drug addicted, lonely, filthy rich, self indulgent old fart manic dick. I suffered through an hour of this snooze fest waiting for something, anything to happen before finally giving up. At first I thought it looked interesting and was trying to get into it, the opening scenes got me interested, but I kept waiting for something of substance to develop, but it got more silly as the movie went on. Why was this movie even made, just to show that Richard Gere can still act? What a waste of time. The opening scenes with flash backs kept me going, but I just could no longer take watching the Richard Gere character being so pathetic. This film is really disappointing and could have had some potential with a different script, maybe they should have invited Julia Roberts to co star and made it into a romantic comedy.