Get Low

While Hollywood has consistently examined the "angry young man," his older counterpart is normally portrayed by a character actor in a minor role. Robert Duvall is no stranger to portraying off-beat, aging male leads, but here he accepts the ultimate challenge -- drawing an audience in to examine the life of a self-made hermit with a widely reviled yet barely explained past.

Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek, a dream team supporting cast, also portray vintage folk with secrets of their own. This partly frontier western, largely psychological mystery unravels slowly in scenes with little or no dialog. What dialog there is offers several levels of potential meaning through pregnant pauses, ill-defined sentence fragments and questions with no immediate answers.

The viewer either chooses to fill in the blanks by closely observing peripheral elements in each scene, or simply awaits a climax that ultimately explains everything. That scene never quite tells all, but intentionally and inventively so. It's the former viewer for whom this film has been so meticulously well-crafted to side-step the clearly declarative and ultimately obvious.

The score is a particularly captivating mix of period Americana and original music that resonates with the time and place -- even when performed by a Polish orchestra or under-appreciated U.S. folk/country performers of our own era.

In short, GET LOW is a niche film that quietly rewards a cinema-loving audience for investing its full attention. Leave your smart phone at home for the best multi-tasking experiences are built into the work itself. The 2009 copyright date indicates Sony Classics, after due deliberation, acquired a "hard sell" that other studios overlooked.

An early October Oscar season screening of this December U.S. release ended with much applause, atypical for guild audiences. Almost half even stayed through the credits, an indication that many involved in the film on all levels are worthy of name-recognition "for your consideration.

Greetings again from the darkness. I am not familiar with director Aaron Schneider, who apparently has done mostly cinematography work on TV for the past 10 years. He must feel like a lottery winner getting to direct his first feature film and having a cast with Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek.

This is a very odd film centered on the story of 1930's Tennessee backwoods recluse Felix Bush, played exceedingly (no surprise) well by Robert Duvall. We learn - slowly - that Felix has been in a self-imposed exile carrying enormous guilt over an incident from 40 years prior. The wonderful thing is that it takes us just about the entire film to discover what caused this guilt and how Felix has dealt with it.

Over that 40 years, the legend of old man Bush has grown with the town people. It is approaching Tall Tale status when he whips up on a local wise-ass on one of his rare visits to town. When Felix realizes that stories have been concocted about him over the years, he heads to local funeral home to arrange a "funeral party" where everyone can come and tell their stories. The local mortician is played by Bill Murray and I can best describe his personality as eager opportunist.

While this appears to be a slow moving story, it really isn't. The real motivation for the party, a reconnection with the past and a cleansing confession all play a part in this fine story. Sissy Spacek plays a painful link to Felix' past, as well as a key to this latest/last event.

Three excellent performances by Duvall, Spacek and Bill Cobbs really make this one work. Bill Murray and Lucas Black hold up their end by supplying a bit of humor and purity, respectively, though the story really belongs to Duvall. His ability to convey emotion with a grunt or facial expression is just amazing to watch.

My only real complaint with the film is that it lasted about 2 minutes too long. The perfect ending had occurred and then we are dealt one final, seemingly forced scene. A minor quibble with a film that kept me fully engaged.

"Get Low" is, in part, considered a psychological drama, it's also one of those films that can be classified as almost anything because the actors are able to add so many layers of interest with intrigue and comedy.

Starring an almost unrecognizably old Robert Duvall and a Jarmusch-styled Bill Murray, respectively, as a hermit wanting to host his own funeral and a funeral home director wanting his business. On the surface, it's a very slow drama because that is essentially all that happens, Murray helps Duvall plan his own funeral. But we are saved from a tedious drama by the actors' comedic timings. There's a lot of dry humour that I found myself laughing out-loud many times. The significance of the film is the psychology in its heart. Throughout, Duvall drops hints as to what his character is all about. You find yourself thinking about who he really is, and what he really means with every line he says. Robert Duvall just may be the best subtle actor.

"Get Low" is very stylized. Set in the 1920s, the director and cinematographer paid attention to the lighting, casting shadows where they wanted them, providing a dark atmosphere when needed to echo the times of the depression-era. I'll also call the humour stylized, it's dry, and it can take you a minute to make sure you got it right.

The one down-side is that the film-makers may have made it a bit too artsy and not accessible enough, because otherwise this could be up for every major award. At least we can rest assured that the Academy knows where to find Mr. Duvall.

Get Low and its cast were very well-received last night at Austin's Paramount Theatre as part of the SXSW Film Festival. This is the type of well-written, well-acted serious film that gets made all too rarely today. The excellent cast was led by three aging legends – the cantankerous Robert Duvall, the hilarious Bill Murray and elegant Sissy Spacek – all of whom attended the SXSW performance and answered questions. They have lost nothing with age. One-time child star Lucas Black has begun to come into his own as an actor as well. Get Low is an example of the type of wonderful film making that can be done with excellent actors working on a minimal budget. The period setting in depression era Tennessee was entirely believable. The film is both very funny and deeply moving.

Very loosely-based on real events, the film tells the story of a backwoods hermit – played by Duvall with grace and spirit – who decides to hold his own funeral while he is still alive. The story is about loneliness, guilt, redemption, forgiveness, love, and human mortality. There have been few recent films that explore such difficult territory and do so with such humanity, decency and humor. I hope that this film gets a theatrical release so that more people can enjoy this rare treat.

"Get Low" is a film inspired by Felix Bushaloo "Uncle Bush" Breazeale. And, how close this film is to his later life is anyone's guess, as I could find nothing about the man on the Internet apart from his name and that this film was inspired by his funeral. But inspired is a loaded term....it can mean the story is close to the truth or has almost nothing to do with it!

After watching the movie, I was left totally impressed with all the acting and not nearly impressed by the story itself. As for the acting, you'd expect perfection from Robert Duvall, but pretty much everyone was exceptional in the film....and this says a lot about the quality of the director as well. As far as the story goes, I felt like there was a huge buildup until the big reveal...and the big reveal wasn't enough to satisfy me after such a long wait.

The story is set in the late 1930s in the rural South. Felix has been a nasty hermit for decades and folks are shocked when he comes to town....and even more shocked when he announces that he's planning a funeral BEFORE he dies...so he can attend as well and listen to everyone's stories about him. I could say more....but you should just see it.

Overall, this is a fine example of acting being even better than the story....and for the quality of the acting, that alone is reason enough to see the film.

By the way, this film does something that has become popular in modern films...showing someone throwing up in vivid detail. Why?! You can hear a person retching or see them from behind....but why this disgusting need to show vomit? I don't get it.