Made In Oregon

More on Feast of Love, which will open tomorrow to mixed reviews. Advance screenings have elicited comments that Morgan Freeman was exceptionally well-cast in this role, while the storyline plays out a little too schmaltzy for many. Some female critics have also complained that the women in the movie are all portrayed as stereotypes.

But I thought this was interesting and worth noting, given all that Oregon has been trying to do in the past few years to attract Hollywood to our state. The Detroit Free Press recently asked director Robert Benton why he shot here instead of in Michigan where the novel takes place.

Q: A lot of locals may be upset you moved the story from Ann Arbor, not because they're parochial, but because the city is like another character in the story. Why the move to Portland?

A: Budget, pure and simple. I completely agree we should have made it in Ann Arbor, but there are a lot of states now who realize the practicality, and the benefits of making it economically viable for movies with small budgets like ours to shoot there. Oregon has a good program, so does New Mexico. Michigan doesn't yet, and it's too bad.

For more about these incentives, visit the Oregon Film & Video website. Hey, I used to play volleyball with Executive Director Steve Oster!