Get Low: 3 1/2 stars
An old hermit named Felix Bush, who lives life by his own means decides to plan his own funeral including a funeral party that he wishes to attend to hear all the stories that people have told about him over the years. The only story that has left to be told is the one Felix has yet say, his own. Get Low is directed by Aaron Schneider and stars Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray, and Lucas Black and runs approx. 103 minutes.
Get Low is a surprisingly good movie with very strong acting performances coming from Robert Duvall and the relative newcomer Lucas Black. The movie starts with brief glimpses with a movie on fire and someone running away. As we cut away, we come to present day, which we are presented with Felix Bush (Duvall) living in the woods by himself chasing after some kids who trespassed onto his property. A short time later he receives a visitor telling him of a passing of an old friend of his and this is the point where Felix decides to get his affairs in order. He hitches up his mule to his wagon a drives into town to see the preacher about doing the service. When the preacher refuses he runs into Buddy (Black) who works at the local funeral home and offers to do the service for him.
Buddy’s boss is Frank Quinn (Murray) and he has somewhat questionable ethics and once he finds out that Felix wants to not only have a funeral, but have a funeral party that he can attend and is willing to pay whatever it takes, Frank will do everything and anything Felix’s wants to ensure he ends up with that money in his pocket. Buddy of course feels like they are just hustling the man, but he just goes along with the whole parade anyway. As the movie goes along we get glimpses into Felix’s former life and it seems the more we know the more we are left wondering. We come to understand that he used to know Mattie Darrow (Spacek) and that they used to date, but when Mattie sees a picture of a female in Felix’s cabin and runs out crying, we know that there is much more to their backstory. Without giving the end away too much, Felix does tell everyone a secret he has be harboring for forty years and it something that I would not expect.
In all, this was a good film. I don’t want to say that you learned a life lesson from it, but it was a film that left you laughing and sad at some points, exactly like the way a good film is supposed to. I do recommend people to go see this film just for Duvall’s performance which is definitely the highlight and main focus point of the movie. So I say, sit down with a good bucket of popcorn and your favorites snacks and watch this delightful piece of work for a well spent afternoon.
Originally posted on Affairs Magazine
