Where Did Colonel Kilgore Go?

    Robert Duvall’s  “Get Lowâ€� is an interesting project, and we’ve come to expect nothing less from this actor who stars in and co-produced the movie.  

   Supposedly based on a true story, it tells the tale of a hermit named Felix Bush (Duvall) who comes out of the cold after 40 years to plan his own funeral — only he’s throwing a party at which the “un-deceasedâ€� will be in attendance.  And everyone who has anything to say about him is invited.

   Bush (one wonders from the name if this is partly a project to resurrect George W. Bush’s reputation, as Duvall was a staunch ally) enlists the help of a cynical, materialistic funeral director (Bill Murray) and his idealistic young assistant (Lucas Black).  

   Before the movie’s climactic scene ­— the party, of course — Bush will also cross paths with an old flame (Sissy Spacek) and an old friend and preacher (Bill Cobbs).

   “Get Lowâ€� has many moments that reward us with subtle acting and rich cinematography.  Director Aaron Schneider, a relative unknown, wisely gets out of the way and lets the old pros do their thing.  Murray in particular prospers from an almost improvisatory style, and Cobbs is splendid.  

   But what the movie lacks is a compelling enough narrative thread to bind the whole into something more than individual gems. There is supposed to be one, to be sure: a big secret (which for the sake of moviegoers I will not reveal).  We know there is because it is shown, without too much given away, at the very beginning.

   Unfortunately, I didn’t buy it — first, because it is possible to figure out the secret in broad outline well before the climactic reveal; and second, because it strikes me as both overly melodramatic and needlessly moralistic.  

   “Get Lowâ€� is set in the 1930s, but its values are 1630s Puritan. To drive home the point, the parting shot is of a father holding a cutely smiling baby, which drew the requisite oohs and aahs from the audience.

   Duvall acts with great authority, of course, but there is something slightly subversive about his cloaking social ideology in pseudo-moral ambiguity.  It would be nice to see a little more “Colonel Kilgoreâ€� of “Apocalypse Nowâ€� and a little less saintly martyr of “The Apostle.â€�

   “Get Lowâ€� is rated PG-13 for some thematic material and brief violent content.  It is playing at The Moviehouse in Millerton.

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