Saturday, December 25, 2010

Get Low (2010)


Oscar season tends to bring out the best in movies that are not as good as the performances in them. This movie is again the case with a great performance by Robert Duvall but a slow moving film, to say the least.

Circa 1930, Felix Bush (Duvall) is a hermit. He lives in a house on 20 some acres in the far end of town. He's the type of person children heard stories of as being a monster. The type of person who has a reputation and does nothing to help clear it. After hearing an elderly man in town died, he realizes he must not have that much time left either. He asks the cash strapped funeral director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) to help him throw a live funeral, so he could hear the stories people had to tell of him. To up the ante, he is also going to raffle off his land during the proceeding. However, when the sister of the woman he used to love shows up, he realizes that this is the time to get a horrible secret of his chest. And he needs her and the whole town to hear it and perhaps change their perception of the crazy old coot who lives in the woods.

Robert Duvall was terrific. Just the speech he gives towards the end alone is Oscar worthy, though I know he may not even get nominated. Bill Murray and Lucas Black were good as the funeral workers who must put up with him. What hurts the actors chances is the slow and almost dull pace of the movie. Not every movie needs to be consistently moving, but there needs to be something gripping you during those down times. This movie did not have that. See it for the performances, but don't expect a whole lot else. Grade: B-

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