Younger and Younger

I don't care what some nonchalant critic thought of this movie. It was very good and it was very clean cut. Even without the hidden and over-inflated sex scene which showed nothing at all other than a comical attribute the movie shined as something I would take my kids to go see. It's a movie about life and sometimes this shix hat happens in life. Moving and touching is how I would describe it. Because it didn't have the hallmarks of common Hollywood crap I guess that nobody liked it.

"Younger and Younger" is a Donald Sutherland film with a very low overall rating of 4.9. And, what's interesting is that several reviewers adored the film...and the rest absolutely hated it. Put me in the latter group.

Sutherland plays Jonathan Younger, the co-owner of a storage facility. However, while he plays and bounces about the place like a puppy, his wife is left to try to run the business. However, one day he's upstairs playing his Wurlitzer organ and boinking some other woman, she's downstairs dying from a heart attack...no doubt brought on by his loud, boisterous bahavior! Soon, his adult son (Brandon Fraser arrives to help him run the place...only for the young man to realize that his father is living in a dreamworld and is of no value in running a business.

The film tried harder to be quirky than any film I've seen in recent years. The problem is finding any reason or coherence for this is a chore, In other words, the weird, quirky parts thrown together don't make for a useful whole. Just a strange and unappealing film to me.

Wonderfully acted, an interesting story, and a song that is so good (and, dare I say, commercial?) that it's surprising it hasn't been better discovered along with classic show tunes. It's not the "Show Me Your Face" that appears in a Google search; it's an original song, with music by Bob Telson (also did Baghdad Cafe) and clever lyrics by Lee Breuer. One real treat is Donald Sutherland's singing of this love ballad. Another nice aspect is that it is a his-and-her song, which makes for two person performance in the same way as "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Such songs are pretty rare and valuable. And yes, I'm writing mostly about the song and not the movie - that's because while I enjoyed the movie (a random find on a dusty shelf in a video store), I loved the song to the point of transcribing the lyrics and creating a lead sheet for it.

Even though I saw this movie some 5-6 years back it will always stick in my mind as one of the most droll films I've ever watched ... I was watching this with someone and she nudged me ... "Let's go to the next Cine (we were in a cinema complex) ... I responded:"No, wait, maybe the movie will eventually get started ... " Yeah RIGHT!!! heheheheeee ... and the last scene really took the cake ... yes the motorbike scene ... PATHETIC!!! sometimes I wonder how these movies make it onto the big screen ... heheheheheheeee ... why Donald Sutherland took this role is beyond comprehension ...

Found this sleeper on the video shelf a couple of years ago and loved it. Saw it again recently and still enjoyed it. An eccentric film, not for your average vegetable brained young movie viewer. There is no action, no sex (well, not really), just an absorbing story that rolls out in a leisurely fashion, gradually pulling the viewer into this unique locale. Sutherland, Davidovitch and even Kellerman are wonderful. Sutherland must have been delighted to find this role and he made the most of it. Again, not for everyone, but an intriguing trip into a world most of us will never know, but might like to.