Get Low (2010)

The old hermit rides his mule cart into town. He says he’s looking to arrange a funeral. His own. The kicker? He wants it now, while he’s still alive to appreciate it. The local priest is a little uneasy about this. Not the town undertaker, though. It’s bad when a funeral home is hurting for business. So he’ll take the request. But how do you plan a “funeral party” for a live man who hasn’t spoken to anyone in 40 years? Who can possibly deliver a eulogy? Is it still a eulogy, if the guy is standing right there?

This odd circumstance (based, I learn, on a somewhat true tall tale of a Tennessee man who attended his own massive funeral) is the basis for Aaron Schneider’s film Get Low. The movie, set in 1930s Tennessee, does in fact unfold like something Mark Twain might have told, with a little bit of rough humor, a little bit of mystery, and a whole lot of comment on what makes people tick. The old hermit is Felix Bush (Robert Duvall), who sports a beard like an Old Testament prophet and shoots trespassers like a nervous moonshiner. The undertaker is Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), a slick transplant from Chicago, who knows very well that bodies ride lighter in the hearse when relieved of heavy burdens of cash. Frank’s assistant is Buddy (Lucas Black), a good-hearted new father who spends a lot of time trying to work out what these two shifty older fellows are on about. Also in the mix are Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), a friend of Frank’s and one-time girlfriend of Felix (back before the beard), and a pair of pastors: town priest Gus Horton (Gerald McRaney), who doesn’t quite know what to make of Felix, and Illinois preacher Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs), who knows exactly what to make of Felix, but doesn’t want to say. There’s also the matter of the woman who appears in a faded photo on Felix’s wall, and a story about a man falling out of a house on fire.

There’s really very little plot. Felix’s odd request, his odder manner, and his odder-still history serve as excuses for the characters to bounce off each other and, in the process, explore themes of life, death, forgiveness, and redemption. There are mystery elements (the identity of the woman in the photo, for instance), but the answers are seldom surprising. The fact of knowledge matters less to this film than what people do with knowledge. For example, at first Felix wants anyone who knows a story about him to come to his funeral and tell it. It turns out, though, that some stories are more interesting to Felix himself than others. There’s something he needs to hear. What it is matters less than why he needs to hear it, and who he needs to hear it from. Get Low evokes thought, not surprise, and is better for that fact.

Really, though, the film is about the acting. Duvall, Murray, and Spacek could read recipe cards for an hour and a half and still be entertaining. None of the three breaks new ground here. Duvall’s done the complex loner before, Spacek’s done the sweet-but-tough belle before, and Murray’s done the world-weary quipster before. But watching these three together is like watching three star athletes run time-tested plays: the joy is in the execution. Duvall and Murray in particular are experts at wringing meaning out of a single grunt or half-smile. In lesser hands, Felix Bush would be ridiculous—but with Duvall in the role, he’s real. Cobbs brings a nice authority to Rev. Jackson. Black is adequate as Buddy (often saddled with needless reaction shots). The part mostly calls for him to be the optimistic foil to the two grumpy old men, but, exactly because those two old men are played by Duvall and Murray, Black’s performance often seems to lack depth. The film wants us to think the character has learned something by the end, but the performance doesn’t show it. McRaney, himself an actor of some physical presence, is criminally underused here. I wonder if some of his part ended up on the cutting room floor.

The rest of the film isn’t as solid as the acting. There are some strange shifts in tone, and certain plot strands that seem dropped for no good reason. The two opening sequences – a flashback to the burning house, and a nearly wordless bit where some kids who sneak onto Felix’s land learn the error of their ways—show a creative spark that soon fades into more pedestrian modes of storytelling. Nothing is wrong with the look of the film – the costumes and setting are right on target. It’s just that the film overall lacks a certain unity. This is one of those movies that seems not to trust itself, and that’s a shame given the quality of the talent involved. The style of the piece just isn’t up to the level of the acting it contains.

Still, there’s a lot to like here. There’s nothing wrong with watching an expert cast go through the paces, and it’s nice to see a film that remembers that the most special of effects are those created by human voices and faces. Get Low is also remarkable for two other reasons: in a culture increasingly obsessed with shallow youth, here’s a film about complex older characters; and the movie is actually about serious things – about faith, about grief, about dealing with the past, about how if it takes a village to raise a kid, it may also take one to understand a grown man.

I find that I like the film the more I think about it after the fact, which is both a compliment and a criticism – a compliment to the content, a criticism of the experience itself. This is a film that makes you think, and for that, and for the performances, I can recommend it. It’s a good film, but not a great one—a wry, soulful look at some of the dustier corners of the human psyche. I’m serious about the Twain comparison. Many books get turned into movies these days. Get Low is that rare movie that might actually work just as well as a book. Especially if you could get Duvall, Murray, and Spacek to read the CD version. Or those recipe cards. I’m in either way.