Get Low

Robert Duvall could sit around in his greasy underpants reading aloud from the index to Sarah Palin's autobiography (“Islamocommunist, Islamofascist, Islamohitler ...”) and be utterly compelling, so first-time feature director Aaron Schneider has an easy go of it with Duvall in the lead. He plays Felix Bush, an ornery hermit in 1930s Tennessee who wants to see his own funeral. To this end, he hires unctious mortician Frank Quin (Bill Murray) to put on a party for him, a job Quin relishes because it involves the transfer of money from the non-Frank Quin part of the world to the more cherished Frank Quin areas. The main conceit of the film is that Bush carries a terrible secret concerning some horrible crime or sin he committed 40 years earlier. The build-up is fun, and the lead actors do a great job with some excellent dialogue, but ultimately, the payoff is a letdown. The actual secret is pretty bland, and director Schneider tugs so hard on the heartstrings that they break and go slack. Great cinematography and a beautiful, period-perfect soundtrack of old-timey string music help make the film more than entertaining, though the ending makes it less than perfect.