The film introduces Professor Harry Scott (Morgan Freeman) quite quickly as the deep-thinking, go-to guy of the story. After a sleepless night sets Harry out on a neighborhood stroll one evening, the story leaps 18 months into the past and the beginnings of a host of love connections.

There is Bradley Thomas (Greg Kinnear), a local coffee shop owner who’s wife of nearly seven years, Kathryn (Selma Blair) is soon wooed by the sweet nothings of another woman. Bradley’s employee, Oscar (Toby Hemmingway), finds himself caught in the rapture of love at first sight with Chloe (Alexa Davalos) while avoiding his lunatic father, Bat (Fred Ward), at every step. Diana, something of a real estate femme fatale (Radha Mitchell) is both in love with the adulterous David (Billy Burke) while at the same time drawn to the lovability of Bradley and his post-divorce philosophies. And of course, there is Harry, who seems to be happiest of all in love with his wife of many years, Esther (Jane Alexander). But undercutting their utopia, still, is the haunting memory of a dead son.

Twisting these characters together in a Brady Bunch, “we are family” since of near over-bearing community, Benton and Burnett actually avoid the landmines one might associate with such an aggressive intermingling. The point isn’t the relationships so much as the individual perspectives. When Bradley falls for someone a third time in the film’s final act, we are less considerate of his object of affection than we are of his process, the emotional journey he takes when slipping into that which the gods created “because they were bored”: love.

The performances hold the film together as a sort of impenetrable adhesive across the board. Morgan Freeman milks his natural tenderness and fatherly warmth for all it’s worth here, perhaps his best performance in the three years since “Million Dollar Baby.” Greg Kinnear especially adds another reason to consider him one of the screen’s most underrated performers with his most lived-in portrayal since 2002’s “Auto Focus,” and perhaps as far back as his Oscar nominated turn in “As Good As It Gets.” It’s all there in his eyes, equal parts longing and suffering, hope and disregard.

Radha Mitchell holds an interesting sort of chemistry with Billy Burke, who chastises her emotional recklessness in a way that has us siding with the argument of a cheater. Alexa Davalos and Toby Hemmingway also produce sparks as mere children enveloped with desire and passion. Davalos might have broken out here in a fearless performance that has her riding Hemmingway on the fifty yard line of a football stadium beneath a meteor shower.

Jane Alexander is a healthy balance for Freeman’s Harry, while Selma Blair conveys a lot of believable emotion in a brief first act performance. Fred Ward’s wasted opportunity, however, lies in a half-realized character on the page with nowhere to go but sideways.

In 35 years and only 11 features, filmmaker Robert Benton has always shot for deeper portraits, even if he has sometimes landed in shallow discoveries. 1977’s “Kramer vs. Kramer” might indeed remain his greatest effort (though some might argue in the favor of “Places in the Heart”), but even when missing the mark in films like “The Human Stain” or, to a lesser extent, “Twilight,” he always manages to reveal more about his characters than most directors would have been capable. The effort is felt considerably when he carves out minor accomplishments, such as “Feast of Love” or the aforementioned “Nobody’s Fool.”

It’s hard to say if “Feast of Love” will land awards notices at the end of the year. One has to consider an early September release good for business but bad for consideration. I also somehow expect there will be passionate detractors who might not be able to get beyond the obvious conveniences and safety of the narrative as easily as I was. If nothing else, one would be hard pressed to argue against the ensemble performance, one that will still likely fly below the radar as the season pushes forward.