Hello Lonesome

Hello Lonesome (2010)

An appropriate title--three couples independently form out of mutual loneliness. Unlike some movies with parallel plots (like "Crash") this one doesn't make the three separate worlds meet. What unifies them is their similar striving for companionship.

And what makes them different is partly what makes the movie terrific. For one older guy with money and a fun if whacky sense of playfulness in his life, all he can manage is a superficial evening of partying with a girl he had met almost a year earlier. For a young guy with an obsession with sports betting the growing tragic needs of his girlfriend adds a needed human dimension to his thin life. The third man is a bit of an effete introvert and he finds comfort visiting the older widow next door, with uncertain sexual intentions.

This is the bare bones, and there are turns and surprises that have to remain surprises so I say no more. Except that the movie makes each situation real and emotionally ripe without sentimentalism (which took some serious restraint in at least one of the three stories, as you'll see). Director, writer, and producer Adam Reid deftly takes a formulaic structure and makes a vivid, living, rather touching movie. The three stories on their own are probably not as complex or original as you might hope, but as a trio they form something much larger than the parts.

And Reid gets the actors to completely inhabit their characters. Necessarily, no one gets a majority role here--at most they have a portion of a third of the screen time--but each of the pairs works superbly. (One of the "couples" is mostly about the man, so there are in essence five main actors.) You can't quite call it ensemble acting since the five never meet all together (this gives nothing away--you don't expect or need this), but in each smaller aspect of the film the acting is tight and sensitive and genuine.

See this. I remember being a little bored at first, getting to know the group, and this might be because there are so many and it takes longer than usual to fall in with them individually. So give it time to start to gel and take a couple of life turns. It's a lovely independent movie.

I'm thinking of writing a book called "Everything You Really Need to Know is in Some Beatles Song". In this case, the song would be "Eleanor Rigby", though here all the lonely people - whose portrayal seems to be the main point of this film - find at least some company. But the portrayal of loneliness is also a popular indie film theme and here it is very much given the indie film treatment: self-conscious quirkiness, studious poignancy, at least one out of the ordinary pairing. And largely aimless development, alas. Aimless, yet predictable in its aimlessness. As so often in first films (and this done on a very small budget), there is a lot to like here, notably the acting, which is alive and natural throughout. And there may come a time when this is mainly remembered as this promising director's early effort. What is more, the success this film has had award-wise show that indie juries at least still like the essentially formulaic approach of this sort of film. Me, I was watching four indie films in a row and hoping for that one you usually get that awakes and surprises you and goes beyond anything you expected. This wasn't it.

We observe several everyday people. Neighbors, friends, blind dates, as they meet up in various ways. The one thing they all had in common was being alone. One couple meets on a dating app. An older, younger couple starts spending time together when one can't drive any longer, and the nice neighbor helps run errands. The voice-over actor decides to be more social. He calls up an old girlfriend. He tries to reunite with his daughter, and even makes buddies with the delivery guy who brings his work assignments. Some twists, turns, some challenges. Happiness, sadness. It's all life. Written and directed by adam reid. He has won a bunch of film fest awards. It's very sweet... kind of a study of human relationships.

First time writer/director Adam Reid understands loneliness with his debut film Hello Lonesome, so much so that he captures it in one of the best ways possible - through a series of fragmented vignettes showcasing some attribute of daily life that, on most cases, is generally unremarkable. Loneliness is best defined in films by showing characters going through the motions or making a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to basic conversations. Even a simple phone call with someone you met on a dating website, a voicemail you're leaving someone you know won't call you back, or a cantankerous exchange with a delivery boy serve as some of the most noteworthy events of the day when you're by yourself.

Hello Lonesome is a triptych, following six wayward souls and their interactions with one another. One is Bill (Harry Chase), an isolated voice-over artist still broken up about his wife leaving him and his daughter's refusal to return his phone calls. Bill, in the midst of doing a great deal of professional recording, befriends a delivery man (Kamel Boutros) who frequently tolerates Bill's blunt and unpredictable behavior each and every day. Another story follows a young sports fanatic/gambler named Gordon (Nate Smith), who meets and falls in love with a woman named Trish (Traci Hovel) on a dating website. The two strike up an amiable chemistry, basking in their inability to cook but unconditional ability to be there for one another, even when Trish comes down with a life-threatening ailment early in on their relationship. Finally, there's Eleanor (Lynn Cohen), an elderly women who loses her license and subsequently sells her antique car, which we can tell was likely the only thing in her life she was close to. As a result, she relies on her young neighbor Gary (James Urbaniak) to taxi her to different places, as well as listen to her stories about her late husband and spy on the new owner of her vehicle to assure he's taking proper care of it.

All of these stories are rather unconventional when specifics are dissected, but the basic outline and structure of each one is just believable enough to take seriously. Reid doesn't get too wrapped up in specifics as he does with playing with the idea of loneliness, making each story achieve a common ground amongst anyone who has ever felt lonely and isolated, either by choice or by circumstance. We have Bill, who is the epitome of absolute loneliness, where he has no family to turn to and no friends to speak of at the current point in time, Gordon and Trish, who have each found someone they really connect with but will inevitably be back where they started in just a short time, and Eleanor, who is facing the fear of dying without anyone to remember her or any companionship in the final days.

Reid sensitively paints these characters' stories without elements of condescension or a poetic sense of finality. There's an almost observational angle being explored here, showing these lives unfold without the crippling devices such as plot points or point-A-to-point-B progression. This is a very liberal film in the way it delicately takes its time to show these characters, through vignettes rather than carefully structured scenarios. It's almost reasonable to believe that Reid wrote this film using the "stream of consciousness" method in that he simply allowed his mind to bleed on the paper or the keyboard.

Hello Lonesome isn't as dialog-heavy as I personally would've liked, but perhaps that works to capture the aura of these people. Small talk and hesitation is common when one is lonely, for fear of opening up or getting to connected, but there's also the element of being so starved for connection you wind up saying practically anything just to get your words out of your head and into somebody else's. Reid doesn't toy with the latter so much, but in such a short amount of time, he gives us characters worth observing and ideas about loneliness worth contemplating.

Starring: Harry Chase, Nate Smith, Traci Hovel, Lynn Cohen, James Urbaniak, and Kamel Boutros. Directed by: Adam Reid.

Hello Lonesome is a brilliant first film from some of the freshest new talent anywhere. The sophisticated direction by Adam Reid is met with nuanced performances by skillful actors. The indie vibe is unforced and genuine - not amateur or in-your-face. Never descending into melancholy, though the film's subject matter is for thoughtful adults, playfulness and joy permeate the atmosphere. Characters are three-dimensional, real people. They don't wear white hats or black hats. This is not Hollywood garbage. Watching these characters grow and evolve is a treat. There are no obvious answers to life's prickly dilemmas. And the film does not expect us to believe otherwise.

This is a gem of a film. You will be enriched for seeing it.