Get Low: FILM REVIEW

First off, let me say that Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek are wonderful in this film. They play complex characters which are thoroughly believable. They make the film. Lucas Black also delivered a thoroughly developed performance as the undertaker understudy to Bill Murray's character.

The latter was a bit of a problem for me. Murray has revitalized his career by doing quirky indie films over the past few years since his days of sophomoric films after he left SNL. That has worked brilliantly. But this is not an indie film; it's a dramatic feature film with a lot to say about forgivness and self-imprisonment. The film is about shame and regret. I regret that Murray was cast as the undertaker.

He was pretty much the same character as he'd played in films like Groundhog's Day or Lost In Translation, a bit of a burned out husk of a human trying to make it in the real world with a forced positive affect. That works in the independent film. It's strange, and can lend itself to eccentricity-driven laughter. But in this film I didn't mind the humor from the character of the undertaker. That sort of worked. But the serious parts were just so miscast that it jerked me from my immersive experience.

Despite that, I loved this film. I did laugh and I certainly cried. It made me think of other films about forgiveness and redemption, like The Mission, for example. I've always looked for films which could illustrate spiritual truths in profound ways. I think this one is a study in so many things which resonate with every person on the planet, and it reframes them in a way which we can understand.

I learned something about myself while watching this film. I loathed the main character at the start, pitied him in the middle, then understood him by the end. I believe that the film succeeded in its utmost when one considers the journey through which it propels the viewer. It was like a bit of what makes an AA meeting or a passionate sermon inspirational. It led me to inspect myself and to consider changing some aspects of who I have become.

Film can be an evocative entity. This film is.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1194263/