Taking Care of Business.

A review of Get Low.

There are certain pleasures in life, like soaking in a hot, relaxing bath until your fingers are prune-y, that you don’t always make time for, but when you actually do, you never regret it. Seeing Get Low is one of those pleasures. Get Low, written by Chris Provenzano (story and screenplay), C. Gaby Mitchell (screenplay) and Scott Seeke (story) and directed by Aaron Schneider (Oscar winner in 2004 for the short live action film Two Soldiers), is the epitome of what an independent film should be: an affecting, original, character-driven story that doesn’t require the distraction of car chases or massive CGI to entertain the viewer. Get Low is memorable for its unique characters, its atypical setting, its remarkable performances and the overall high level of creativity and craft with which it is executed.

Set in 1935 in East Tennessee, Get Low is based on the true tale of legendary hermit Felix “Bush” Breazeale (Robert Duvall) and the funeral party he threw for himself while still living. Get Low explores how the much-feared and reviled Felix planned and executed the shindig at which he raffled off his sizeable parcel of land. He finds willing accomplices in his strange endeavor to “get low” aka “get down to business” in the fiscally savvy Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), owner of Quinn Funeral Homes and Frank’s honest, good-hearted apprentice, Buddy (Lucas Black). As part of Felix’s journey to reconcile his life, he encounters and must make peace with Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), a woman from his past, and Reverend Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs), among others.

While Get Low presents Felix as a typical mean old coot, a role he is all too happy to play to the general public, the beauty of the film is in peeling back Felix’s layers to reveal his unexpected back story. Get Low refreshingly refuses to spoon feed its audience. Instead, it utilizes the kind of detailed storytelling that requires the viewer to pay close attention. (A word of warning, however, that close attention must also be directed to the sound, as some dialogue is softly delivered and easy to miss.) Such attention is rewarded by a cleverly written, beautifully shot, skillfully directed, intimate film. The ambling pace and drawn out revelation of Felix’s history may feel a bit slow at times, but this is probably more due to the hyberbolic, hyperactive expectations of cinema that pre-fabricated movies like Clash of the Titans and Transformers have engendered in us. In the viewing of Get Low, patience has its virtues.

Among those many virtues are the strong, entertaining performances of the entire cast. Robert Duvall is heartbreakingly hilarious as Felix. As written, the character is singularly unique, and as brought to life by Mr. Duvall, he is engaging, infuriating at times and even charming at others. Bill Murray is pitch-perfect as the proprietor of Quinn Funeral Homes. Mr. Murray conveys more in a wordless moment than some actors can in an entire performance. His timing, both comic and dramatic, is impeccable, and he skillfully balances Frank’s self-interested and altruistic tendencies with subtlety. Sissy Spacek elevates an already top-notch cast -- her Mattie’s presence is warm, her soul so sad. Lucas Black’s Buddy is described by Frank as the “heart of Quinn Funeral Home,” but he could also aptly be described as the heart of the film. Buddy is a character who could have been cloying in his earnestness, but instead, Mr. Black underplayed him, making him someone you want to spend more time with on the screen. Finally, if Buddy is the heart of the film, then Bill Cobbs’ Charlie is its moral center, but without being preachy (remarkable for one playing a reverend) or self-righteous. Mr. Cobbs gives a memorable, biting performance.

Get Low is the kind of movie that reminds you that filmmaking is an art. It’s a film that nicely weaves together moments of humor with moments of darkness. So get ahead of the curve in this year’s Oscar prognosticating and jump into the darkness of your local theater to see Get Low when it opens (on July 30, 2010). Join me in sending a message to the “greenlighters” of movies to make more of this kind of film: (To paraphrase Felix Bush): “No damn trespassing [on our intellect.] Beware of mule.”