AFTER a brief hiatus from the big screen, Jennifer Lopez returns with more a whimper than a bang in this rather drab yarn of familial strife that asks us to accept the singing superstar as a battered, down-on-her-luck single mother.

She delivers a typically one-note performance that never plumbs the depths of her character's anguish and despair.

Her co-stars, including Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and impressive youngster Becca Gardner, are far better equipped to draw us into the unfolding drama, if only An Unfinished Life wasn't so pedestrian and predictable.

Director Lasse Hallstrom seems well disposed to these picture postcard portraits of close-knit community life, having previously helmed Chocolat, The Cider House Rules and The Shipping News.

The picturesque landscapes of British Columbia (standing in for Wyoming) look gorgeous thanks to director of photography Oliver Stapleton and there's a twang of rustic charm to Deborah Lurie's original music.

However, while the locations are somewhere we could happily get lost for a couple of hours, Hallstrom's film isn't.

The 107-minute running time seems considerably longer.

When her relationship with her abusive and bullying boyfriend Gary (Lewis) disintegrates, Jean Gilkyson (Lopez) clings on to the one thing which means the most: her beautiful daughter Griff (Gardner).

With nowhere else to turn, Jean seeks refuge with her father-in-law Einar (Redford), with whom she has always endured a fractious relationship, ever since his son passed away.

To make matters worse, Jean neglected to tell Einar that he had a granddaughter.

Over time, with a little help from Einar's lifelong buddy Mitch Bradley (Freeman), who was badly injured in an accident and now needs regular injections of morphine to tolerate the pain, Jean and her father-in-law heal old wounds and grow close through their shared love of Griff.

Jean also contemplates a new romance with the handsome town sheriff, Crane Curtis (Lucas), and finds employment as a waitress in a coffee shop presided over by straight-talking Nina (Manheim).

However, the ghosts of the past namely Gary and the grizzly bear which mauled Mitch must be first laid to rest before the Gilkyson clan can truly move on.

The scenes between Lopez and Redford, whose embittered rancher blames his daughter-in-law for his son's death, fail to catch fire.

Redford's sparring with Freeman is far more successful, the two old-timers trading quips and digging in their heels to defend their standpoint.

Equally appealing are conversations between Gardner and the older co-stars she demonstrates an emotional range than eludes her screen mother.

Lucas and Lewis are consigned to two-dimensional supporting roles, while Bart the Bear looks suitably menacing as director Hallstrom trudges bravely through the syrupy sentiment.