While I do like some independent drama films, I didn't think I would enjoy this one based on the description that I had seen of it. My impression was that it would probably be too boring for me to enjoy or I wouldn't be able to relate at all. However, while it did get a mediocre rating on the IMDB website I found that I was able to both enjoy and appreciate some of the philosophies the characters shared.

In the movie, Manhattan lawyer who we only know as "Diane" is told by her husband that he wants a divorce, years after their marriage has only been hanging by a thread. Even though she is no longer in love with him, she is still upset because she was trying her best to hold the marriage together and feels like her efforts were in vain.

In an attempt to recover, she takes her teenage children and heads to the place where she grew up, Woodstock. There she and her children discover new love, she reconciles with her estranged mother Grace who is a hippie, and learns to live and let go.

Despite the fact that I loved the movie and have never really been around a lot of the "hippie" types, I felt that "Peace Love and Misunderstanding" might have exaggerated those characters a little and played on a few too many cliches.

For example, there is the cliche sexually liberal hippie stereotype, that was played on in the movie again. Diane's mother sets her up with a man, Jude who, later on it seems as if she is falling in love with. However, soon after she sleeps with him, she finds out that Jude and her mother also used to sleep together.

The movie also had a lot of negative reviews, where a number or critics and reviewers called it silly, too happy-go-lucky and predictable. However, I thought that even though it wasn't perfect it did have its good share of advice, which I do plan to take in my own personal life.

One of them in particular was after Diane's daughter, Zoe says something cruel to her after watching her kiss Jude on stage. Grace, who heard it reproves Zoe and tells her that what she said to her mother was cruel.

I also liked the way that the bonding process between Diane and Grace were portrayed, especially since they were estranged for so long. There is one particular scene where Grace, Diane and Jude have a very easy laid back conversation about her being born at Woodstock to the sound of Jimmi Hendrix's music. I think that shows how their relationship had evolved from one of the children in the first part of the movie asking if their grandmother was dead, which shows just how little they saw of her.
When I first started watching the movie and heard that Jane Fonda would be playing the role of an aged hippy I was more than a little surprised. I thought that a role such as that one was a far cry from the glamorous ones I would see her in various movies.

However, I think that she did an okay enough job playing this role, especially considering that I don't think that she was given a lot to work with in terms of a script.

As I mentioned, "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding" is by no means perfect. However I think that you might just like it if your'e looking for a drama that is some form of lighthearted entertainment