TMG Scale 10.0
Starring Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek
TMG does not give out a 10.0 often or lightly. Get Low represents a real high in cinema. The Academy of Motion Pictures should nominate this film for Best Picture, Robert Duvall for Best Actor and Bill Murray for Best Supporting Actor. If not, the Academy, and indeed the Oscars themselves, will become more irrelevant than ever. But since this film had no anti war message, pro gay theme or Al Gore missive in it, TMG’s expectations are not high. The Academy need only balance the nominations for this film with Please Give and Winter’s Bone if it wants to get it right for a change.
Duvall plays an eccentric hermit named Felix Bush with something in his past to hide. At the summit and crossroads of his life, he seems to conclude that redemption may be found in a confession at his own funeral party rather than a somber funeral later with no one to eulogize him, or even care. Set in 1930’s rural America, he engages the local funeral home owner Frank Quinn, played by Murray, to orchestrate the event. Literally dying for business, Quinn Funeral Home is more than willing to find anyway to oblige. This is not your 1980’s Caddyshack Bill Murray, though little glints of his past shine through. Every solemn and dignified line Murray delivers is punctuated ultimately with some smart-ass reprise. You start to expect it but are never disappointed. This is the role Murray was born to play.
Why this film is listed as a 2009 versus 2010 film is hard to figure and TMG would like someone to explain. We never saw this film released anywhere until 2010.
What was the message of this film? That every person has a story to tell? That you never really know a person until you walk in their shoes? Or maybe that all actions we take can have consequences we have to live with? Perhaps it is that we should never criticize anyone we see as eccentric or odd until we truly understand what made them the way they are? Maybe there is another message…or a dozen more. This is what makes great film and Get Low so great. Look for your own message. Ponder what you find. Learn from it. Get something from it. Get this movie on your agenda today. Get, Get Low and get high on life in the process.