Director: Aaron Schneider

Starring: Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Lucas Black, Sissy Spacek

4/5 popcorns

An occasionally mesmeric drama worthy of its talent, ‘Get Low’ creates a feeling that is both oddly comforting and deeply disturbing. Set in the backwoods of depression-era Tennessee, Aaron Schneider’s directorial debut lulls the audience into comfortable repose with gorgeous cinematography and deliberate pacing while threatening to deliver a punch to the gut. The atmosphere of the picture is alluring and foreboding in equal measures, compounding possible dread with mere suggestion.

Boasting many of the year’s finest performances, Aaron Schneider’s first feature is also one of the most mature debuts in recent memory, but still fails to deliver the earth-shattering revelation it wishes to bear.

 A legend of sorts in Roane County, Tennessee, Felix Bush (Robert Duvall) has been holed up in his small cottage for 40 years. As Bush has never alluded to the reasoning behind his self-imposed exile, the townsfolk have taken to making up unflattering stories that might explain his isolation. When his health begins to rapidly deteriorate, Bush decides to throw an unprecedented funeral party, where everyone can tell the stories they have heard about him.

 Enterprising funeral parlor wonder Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) and his well-meaning apprentice, Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black), are more than willing to indulge Bush for a very large sum. Bush might be ready to die, but he is ill prepared for the reemergence of his lost love, widower Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), who may hold the key to a secret that has been eating him alive for decades.

 Duvall is in his best role in ages, deftly softening Bush’s gruff persona with dashes of wry humor and wise observations of a period that’s passed him by. Masked beneath a thick beard, Duvall is hardly recognizable as the star as many of the most iconic Hollywood films. He is still every bit the thespian that helped define an area in filmmaking, preserving his potential to chew the screen to pieces. Schneider gleans a similarly terrific turn from Bill Murray, who’s grown to become one of the finest actors of his generation, while Spacek pitches in a nuanced performance.

Schneider’s articulate depictions of borderline profound themes make it hard to imagine that this is the director’s first feature. A filmmaker with a cinematographer’s eye (Schneider shot ‘Kiss the Girls’ and worked on ‘Titanic’), the picture is exceptionally beautiful. Schneider harvests the lushness of relatively unexciting hues to paint an enthralling portrait of a time and place that few, if any, viewers might call familiar. Even when faced with a talented cast, Schneider doesn’t blink.  Duvall’s character is so wise that one would hardly suspect that a freshman filmmaker directed him, while Murray projects a distinct, occasionally hilarious worldview which is more literary than cinematic.

As the picture wears on and the mystery concerning Bush’s backstory intensifies, Schneider can’t help but corner himself. There is simply no way of justifying Bush’s forty-year exile. His speech explaining why he cut himself from the world is stirring, but it is simply insubstantial. But with Duvall’s performance powering the picture, the viewer’s inability to cry at the end should hardly matter. Like any mature filmmaker, Schneider aims to enlighten, not manipulate.

 

Published on August 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm