Get Low (2010)

After years of only partially knowing about this film, I finally decided to order it from Netflix just recently. My mom ended up watching it with me. She thought it was a little depressing. Well, it sorta is, but it also was a little amusing in spots. I mean, Robert Duvall is fine as the leading character who normally just lives by himself and tries to not bother anyone but there are tales about him that he doesn't confirm or deny. Bill Murray is a funeral director who takes Duvall's request for a funeral party so he can be talked about while he's alive. Sissy Spacek is a woman Duvall once knew. There's also nice parts for Lucas Black and Bill Cobbs. In summary, Get Low is quite a worthy drama for those patient enough for a low-key, mostly non-confrontational film.

Get Low I found disappointing. It has expensive cast, Robert Duval, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek. Small town 1920s is lovingly reproduced. The basic plot is a taciturn, rude, gun-toting, bullying, stereotype old codger, Felix Bush wants to have a funeral party while he is still alive. Murray does a good job with the down at the heels funeral director. He is no hero, but he has his dignity. This simple plot drags on and on and on. All the time, town's people make references to Felix's unspeakably notorious past, but no one ever reveals any details. It gets to be really irritating and artificial. At the funeral party, with plenty of extras in costumes and cars, Felix reveals his crime, which it turns out was not that bad after all. What almost made be throw up was when Felix died for real, his girl friend of the deep past came to visit him as a ghost to guide him to heaven. Gag me with a spoon! How dare they throw in such a trite, cheesy Christian infomercial! (I expected a subtitle -- brought to you by Peter Popoff faith healers).

Robert Duvall is one of my all-time favorite actors and here he gives a worthy performance as a person suffering guilt, a self-imposed 40 year social exile of being a hermit, and a search for redemption (shades of his "The Apostle" and "Tender Mercies") -- themes he apparently treasures.In this story, word of the death of an acquaintance prompts elderly Felix (Duvall) to think of his own passing and make plans for it. He's been a hermit for 40 years (for reasons revealed at the end of the film) and such a thoroughly cantankerous old codger that the townspeople trade stories and speculate about him.Felix visits the local undertaker (Bill Murray), an oleaginous salesman who'll do anything to make a buck. Felix wants his funeral service before he dies and the undertaker arranges it. The acting of Duvall and Murray make the film come alive and worthwhile. Any other competent actors would have made it a dud.Set in Georgia in the early 1930s (soon after the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression), those world events seem to have no effect on these people. Never mind, the joy of the movie is seeing these two actors display their wares.

A great cast led by Robert Duvall as Felix, a man alone against the world, with a strange request, is a good concept which disappointed me after a compelling build up. Felix is a recluse who is thought to be an evil man and possible murderer who others avoid. He comes up with the idea to hold a funeral party for himself while he is still alive. Bill Murray is perfect as the owner of a funeral parlor who agrees to stage the event, even selling lottery tickets to attendees for a chance to win the hermit's property. Felix reveals a long ago relationship with a town widow, Mattie(Sissy Spacek) before her marriage, and discloses a secret affair with her married sister, Mary Lee; unfortunately, the final part of the story goes off the rails, ruining three great performances by Duvall, Murray, and Spacek.