Some of the best character actors in recent memory carry Get Low. Robert Duvall plays Felix Bush, an infamous hermit who wishes to throw himself a funeral party, Bill Murray is struggling funeral home director Frank Quinn, and Sissy Spacek is Bush’s former flame Mattie Darrow. Director Aaron Schneider faithfully recreates a rural community in Depression-era Tennessee (the tough economic times are the sole reason why Quinn – who is in financial trouble despire working in the one business everyone needs – humours Bush’s wishes); like America, the small town is full of characters both old and young who are trying to move forward.
At first, the film is a quaint folk tale, with Duvall and Murray delivering deadpan line to provide dead pan humour. Bush seems to be the contrarian type who simply wants to celebrate his life before everyone who knows him passes away. As the film progresses, it seems that there is more to Bush’s solitude than simply a man trying to get away. He wants to call everyone together and confess some of the misdeeds from his past. Bush wants to come to terms with Darrow, if he can get the words out of his mouth.
The film’s message is that life is a great deal like Mr. Bush, neither entirely good nor bad and nothing is exactly what it seems. I found the number of loose ends irksome. The screenwriters were lazy in this regard and it negated a great many good things that they did. ***