Lovely, Still

"Lovely, Still" is a story of discovering love late in life. It has the potential of being schmaltzy like the similar "Letters to Juliet" (2010), but it manages to avoid that trap and displays much more honest emotion like "Away From Her" (2006).

Martin Landau is the oft-confused and bewildered Robert who quickly falls in love with the more out-going Mary (Ellen Burstyn). The supporting characters were particularly well crafted. I enjoyed Adam Scott as Mike, Robert's boss and friend, and Elizabeth Banks as Alex, Mary's daughter.

Set during the holiday season, "Lovely, Still" is charming and amorous. Recommended for fans of the genre.

I am both a Martin Landau and an Ellen Burstyn fan, so I was especially looking forward to seeing them act. I expected formidable acting muscle, sparks, confrontations: things befitting their Actor's Studio origins. What instead greeted me was a Landau so frail and docile...and frightened. His character, Robert Malone, is a man who treads warily and uneasily through life. He is a single man, and we assume he has simply been unlucky in love. Burstyn is the loving, open-hearted, yet lonely, woman who sweeps into his life one Christmas and changes it forever. One thing about Landau in this film: the actor looks shockingly aged, and I'm sure this has been deliberately used by both the filmmaker and Landau himself as a sort of effect to win us over to sympathy for Malone. Yet I had no doubt that this is a consummate performance. Landau, in life, is likely vital and engaged whereas Robert Malone, as I have said, seems on the brink of terror nearly every moment of his day. (The "wakeup" sequences are especially effective conveying this.) The love story plays out in an even-handed way. Underneath this blossoming love, of course, is the shadow of mortality. There occurs--over two-thirds into the film--a dramatic event that I won't reveal or spoil, but it causes the viewer to look back over events that occurred and reflect on them...in a rewarding way. The drama is never cheap nor unjustified. I come away with satisfaction and admiration for the unexpected performances, for the tender core of the film, and for a fresh perspective on the elderly that is anything but cloying or cliché. This movie is in fact--particularly with the presence of Death hanging over events (as another character in the film)--as gripping and occasionally breathless as any thriller.

For a first time director/writer, this film is amazing. The sweet and the sour are both represented and displayed in such beautiful style. There is no question that the power of love is alive and well in this amazing story.

All of the actors really took to their roles; for me this is always a sign that a great director is behind the project. Can anyone say Clint Eastwood?

See this film, and tell everyone you know to see this film. We loved it.

Major distribution will pick this one up.

Fortunately, I saw the preview recently in Tokyo. That was great. You should see this. When you see the press conference (Q & A) after the Toronto Film Festival, you can understand that the actors (Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn and etc) and the young director Nicholas Fackler trusted entirely each other. The actors were fascinated by Nik's talent. They realized his genius potentials into the marvelous work. I was amazed at how such a young (at age of of 23) "student" could have directed this excellent movie. Therefore, it is too bad that this movie is, so far, ignored by major studios and distributors in the US.

I never thought of this in such a way. I can only assume this is how life truly is for a person under these circumstances. Totally unexpected. A little slow in places but I loved it. I bawled like a baby.