5/5 This movie will make you rethink your priorities
  by Andrew Bauer (Durham, NC)
I actually first caught this movie on the Lifetime Movie Network, and had never heard of it before that. However, I soon found myself engrossed in it. It's not your typical love story, but that's what is so good about it. Two people meet and slowly fall in love, but there's a big secret that each of them has that they're not sharing with the other that ends up making all the difference in how they relate to each other. By the time you finish watching this movie, you'll have rethought everything about your life and how you're living it, and if you have a significant other, you'll both be brought closer by this story. It's a very powerful love that these two people share, made all the more intense by their situation. This may not be a blockbuster, but I highly recommend that anyone who has ever spent their time whining about how hard they have it pick this up and watch it.

4/5 A Different Kind of Love Story: Balance in Life
  by Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
GRIFFIN & PHOENIX is a quiet little made for television film that touches the vulnerable heart. Originally written in 1976 as a television film by John Hill, this thirty-years-later version holds up well, and the fact that audiences will still opt for sensitive stories that treat difficult topics in a mature manner, adding warmly humorous touches to a potentially maudlin idea, speaks well for our continuing tastes.

From the opening frames of the film we learn that Griffin (Dermot Mulroney) has inoperable cancer: his frank and compassionate physician (Lois Smith) aligns him with reality. Griffin is a divorced father of two boys and his first attempt to find meaning in his limited time is to spend time with them, an attempt partially thwarted by his ex-wife. Once a workaholic, Griffin attends a class on death and dying at the university and there he meets the rather strange and isolated Phoenix (Amanda Peet). Griffin's new take on life encourages him to go after the seemingly impenetrable Phoenix and through a series of wildly frivolous escapades he courts her and they gradually fall in love - something neither felt they could do. They cope with issues of intimacy and finally Phoenix shares her secret with Griffin, a secret that plunges them headlong into a fully blossomed romance. How the two cope with the inevitable is well handled, rarely bordering on sappy, and always holding our compassion.

Director Ed Stone paces the film well, inserting moments of extended silence to match the emotional atmosphere, allowing breathing space. Both Peet and Mulroney create believable three-dimensional characters and are well supported by such solid actors as Lois Smith, Sarah Paulson, and Novella Nelson. The story may have sad aspects, but the cast always allows the humor inherent in any life event to come through. And that is one of the several reasons the film works well. Grady Harp, September 07


4/5 Cherish every moment...
  by Julie Samson (Canada)
This movie made me bawl! It starts up and you get connected to both characters. It is hearwarming and so tragic at the same time. Cherish every moment and make everything count. Dont wait, see this movie. Little advice for the girls, wear water-proof mascara:)

4/5 Thoughtful and heartfelt.
  by M. Carlson (Denver, CO USA)
I didn't know what to expect when I first saw this movie. I thought it would be campy. . . etc. However I was surprised.It is an extremely well-acted film that treats a delicate subject with class and beauty.
The movie starts off humorously enough, with one of the main characters--Griffin (played brilliantly by Dermot Mulroney) finding out some life-altering news. He then meets a woman named Phoenix(Amanda Peet) at university where he has decided to take a class. He falls in love with her, and she with him.
It is a beautiful love story with a twist. It is definitely not your normal love story, as previous people who have reviewed this film would say. This is not a movie for everyone, as this movie can be hard to stomach. Long interludes, slow-moving dialog, and slightly implausible situations, make this movie slightly difficult to watch. However if you can sit through all the quietness, this movie is worth the view at least once.


3/5 No Comedy This
  by John Rundell (Castle Rock, Colorado)
The jacket notes bill this movie as a "heartwarming romantic comedy" and Amazon's product description refers to it as "funny". Please: Heartwarming and romantic it may be, but a comedy its not -- from the very first scene it's about death, and it's not black humor. No living happily ever after here. Good drama; no romantic comedy.