Entertainment

‘Belle’ peppered with sugar

Remember the lyric about a teaspoon of sugar helping the medicine go down? Rob Reiner’s “The Magic of Belle Isle’’ smothers two of this year’s best performances — by Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen — in enough family-friendly sweetness to induce diabetic shock.

Freeman, in a rare lead role, offers a master class in acting as Monte Wildhorn, a wheelchair-bound, once-famous writer of Western novels who arrives in the fictional resort town of Belle Isle for a summer housesitting gig arranged by his pool-cleaner nephew (Kenan Thompson).

Next door, Charlotte (Madsen) has taken up temporary residence in her family’s longtime cottage while she sorts out her impending divorce, accompanied by a mildly rebellious teenage daughter (Madeline Carroll) and two understandably confused younger children, Finn (Emma Fuhrmann) and Flora (Nicolette Pierini).

Monte orders Scotch by the case — his alcoholism is more talked about than shown, this being a PG-rated family flick — and initially prefers to pass his time staring at his longunused typewriter.

But Monte unwittingly becomes a local celebrity when he agrees to honor a request by the mayor (Fred Willard), a big fan, to read a eulogy in a way that only characters played by Morgan Freeman can.

Soon our curmudgeonly hero is baby-sitting, banging out short stories for budding writer Finn and, more problematically, befriending a mentally impaired teenager (Ash Christian).

For all the bonhomie and reduced alcohol consumption, Monte is still battling demons that won’t let him satisfy his agent (Kevin Pollak) with some new writing — or even a deal to sell one of his books to Hollywood.

Just when I was beginning to check my watch amid endless picturesque views of Belle Isle (actually Greenwood Lake, NY) and Monte’s grandiloquent orations to the dog, a subtle and redemptive love story started creeping up on me.

Even in an underwritten role, the delightful Madsen shines in her best performance since her comeback role in “Sideways’’ — especially in a porch-courting scene with Freeman that almost makes up for the more egregious aspects of Guy Thomas’ script and Reiner’s broad direction.

For a few minutes, at least, the stars make “The Magic of Belle Isle’’ live up to its name rather than letting it be just an overgrown Lifetime movie.