This movie is the most moving and funny movie I've seen in a very long time. As a housewife ( "homemaker") and a fan ( Rupert) I found it to be sympathetic . Anyone who misinterprets Dirk's angry outburst has it wrong. Kathy Bates is not really an actress I know but she is perfect , the whole cast is perfect for their roles. Julie Andrews had me in stitches .I am watching it after reading Rupert's auto-biography so the inclusion of her was even more fun. It is at times terribly moving .I am not really a fan of the type of music in the film but you get drawn in to the romance and find you are singing the songs for days .This movie deserves to be more widely available .Our favourite scene involves Dirk and a gun and his trousers , watch it and see !

I caught about two-thirds of this movie on an overseas flight and couldn't make head nor tails of it, but Kathy Bates was fun and Rupert Everett was in good form so I enjoyed what I saw. Then forgot about it (it was a damned long flight) until I read Rupert's latest bio and he mentioned it. So I rented it. And seeing from start to finish made me like it so much, I bought it.You cannot really catch the essence of the pleasure of this story in a basic synopsis. A settled-in housewife fantasizes about a "Barry Manilow"-style singer named Victor Fox, but then her marriage falls apart and Victor is killed and she sets off on a journey initially to attend his funeral but actually to find herself...and finds all sorts of adventure and a different kind of love and a new meaning to her life, en route. It's almost like a modern "Candide" wrapped around a murder mystery that isn't so mysterious. Okay...maybe I'm stretching in the analogy, but it's still a movie that tries to be more than just an A-B-C style Hollywood piece of nonsense -- that, alone, is worth massive praise -- and comes so close to working, I hate to say anything negative about it.Of course, it never hurts to have Kathy Bates at your center. As Grace, she is warm, accepting, stronger than she thinks and believable as a woman suddenly cast adrift after 25 years of a very safe and careful marriage. She's hidden herself in the guise of being nothing more than her husband's wife and mother to their now-grown children, and never realized how much she'd stopped being her own person. And Rupert Everett is in fine caustic form as Dirk, a man who's submerged himself in publicly being nothing but the "valet" to Victor Fox when he's really the man's long-time companion and is unable to openly grieve for someone who treated him like dirt but whom he still loves. Another lost soul in need of a new life. They play nicely off each other.There's a fine compliment of supporting characters -- a over-sexed dwarf with an attitude, a mild- mannered husband, three greedy sisters, a window-washer with issues and Julie Andrews in her take-charge mode. Had things been mixed up just a little more with some serious farce all the way through and trimmed by about fifteen minutes, this could have been a fantastic movie. Instead, we get a neatly laid out smörgåsbord of fun moments that don't really come together as one complete meal. That's not to say it isn't tasty...and worth the watching...it's just missing that extra dash of chaos to give it just the right flavor.Of course, that don't mean I won't go back for seconds.

An utter mess of a movie – practically nothing in the script works. The basic premise, trumpeted from the opening shot, of Jonathan Pryce as a superstar-heartthrob pop singer is simply unconvincing (especially as his voice is notably unnotable), the directing is schizophrenic (leaden one minute and frantic the next) and the movie is ridiculously over-long (the exposition alone takes 30 minutes before the plot – or Rupert Everett – is even revealed) – but the performances of Bates and Everett are simply wonderful, Eaton is eminently memorable (although she relies far too much on screaming, undoubtedly dictated by the director, for comic effect), and Aykroyd is terrifically understated and sympathetic.It feels like two different scripts, torn up, thrown into a box and shaken, but the chemistry between the two leads is palpable and it's heartening to see Everett actually act again (he's been coasting on charm for years). Redgrave has her moments too, but the only scenes that really satisfy, as sure-handed comedy film-making, are the two cameo appearances by Julie Andrews (diabolically skewering her own image) and the DON'T LOOK NOW red raincoat send-ups, which are worthy of AIRPLANE! – leading one to think that it can't be a co-incidence that this movie was co-produced by Jerry Zucker, who seems to have managed to get one or two licks in of his own.

Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Or maybe a thriller? Who knows... Anyway, that wouldn't be a problem if the movie were really good. PJ Hogan mixed drama and comedy in the great "Muriel's Wedding", and "My best friend's wedding" was a funny one; but in "Unconditional Love" we find this middle-aged woman (Kathy Bates, nice as usual) obsessed with such a Engelbert Humpredick look-a-like , she thinks her life is just OK till his husband (Dan Aykroid) leaves her. After that, his musical idol is murdered and she decides to travel to England in order to assist to his funeral and visit his house. So we watch how she meditates about her life and what she's done ... Soon the movie, which it looks like a bitter drama, turns into a crazy comedy not that funny, with some weird characters (that "little" daughter in law), and a lot of crazy situations... It gets way too long. And by the time you're getting to the end of it, you're a little disconnected.So, it is the worst PJ Hogan's work, but sometimes it makes you smile, and Kathy Bates is a great actress so is always a pleasure to watch her as the total starring.My rate: 4.5/10