Get Low

Get Low is a big giant "enh" for me.

What a cast! the first pairing of Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, add in some Bill Murray. If only I found what they were doing in the movie to be way more interesting than I did.

The movie's based in the most very loose of ways on the story of a man who arranged to have his funeral while he was alive, back 80 years ago or so. It's a true story but as much a legend with a lot of the details not very well known, so the movie's essentially taking this very basic concept and inventing an entire story around it. In said story, Duvall is a hermit with fierce reputation in town. Murray is the funeral director who helps to set things up, with an assistant played by Lucas Black. Sissy Spacek is an old flame of Duvall's who so happens to be in town. But I didn't care much about Duvall or about whatever secrets lay in his past, I didn't care about his relationship with Spacek. I just didn't care. This isn't so much the fault of the actors. I'm not sure Bill Murray is right for period pieces, honestly there's a lot of stuff that isn't playing Bill Murray which I don't think Bill Murray is all that good at. But Robert Duvall is a legend, and rightfully so. There's a rare performance of his that will have even the briefest of false note. I think he over-acts in the climactic scene of this movie, but I might have better tolerated if I'd cared more. We can overlook the foibles of those we love.

Good cast and all, I was pretty much ready for a nap before this was over.

I saw this at a screening July 20 for Musuem of the Moving Image members, at the AMC Loews 34th St. This was one of those movies where I start thinking about the opportunity cost of the two hours.