Get Low
Directed by Aaron Schneider
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics
Robert Duvall, whose first film role was as Boo Radley in 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird, returns to his reclusive roots in Get Low. He plays Felix Bush, a hermit who has been living isolated in the woods for the past 40 years, and through town folklore has become a bogeyman figure in the eyes of young and old.
Set in the depression-era south, the film depicts Bush arranging for the unheard of: a living funeral for himself that he will attend, where anyone who has a story about him to share — whether a memory or a tall tale — can speak for him where he is unwilling to speak for himself.
This is where Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), the opportunistic funeral home owner, comes in. Quinn, who is facing bankruptcy, and his assistant Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black) set out to make Bush’s dream come true.
Their plans attract the attention of Mattie Darrow (played with a sorrowful grace by Sissy Spacek), a local widow, who knew and loved Felix when he was young, and has something to do with the secret he has been hiding from all these years.
Although the film is wickedly funny and wise, it is not a comedy. Rather, it’s a touching drama, exploring themes of memory, penance and guilt.
The heart of the film is Duvall’s layered portrayal of Felix Bush, which expands beyond the initial caricature presented: an ornery, shotgun-wielding curmudgeon with a mountain man beard. As the film progresses, Duvall goes beyond the town’s myth of Felix Bush and makes him real — an old man who lives in constant shame and self-loathing.
Duvall’s Bush has an awkward, pathetic manner about him. He seems to rehearse every gesture or word a thousand times in his head before he takes action, being so afraid of offending or hurting anyone in the aftermath of the event which led to his isolation.
While the film builds to a fitting conclusion for its characters, it does not provide the dramatic conclusion the narrative seems to build toward, lacking a payoff. But this is a catch-22, as a more dramatic or humorous conclusion would not have fit with the story, as its tone or the characters’ lives and would have felt tacked on. The film is what it should have been, even though the viewer can’t help feeling slightly disappointed.
That said, the film’s composition is balanced, beautiful and delicately nuanced. Get Low conveys as much with gestures or glances as it does with words. The lighting of the film gives it a soft, homey feel that highlights both Bush’s isolation and hints at his lingering memories of who he was before.
Overall, this is a beautiful film that starts with great promise and continues to a solid, although flat, conclusion.