Get Low (2009– 100 mins) R. Duvall, Bill Murray, S. Spacek 

In this 1030’s tale, Duvall plays Felix Bush, the small town’s hermit who lives out in the woods all alone, rarely being seen or heard from by the townspeople. He is one of those mysterious guys who everyone has a story about, and no one really knows what is true and what is not. What they do know is you stay away from the ornery old man and that there is something not right about him.

Naturally there is a whole lot then meets the eye. The old man has a 40 year old secret. One that once he hears of an old firend’s passing of old age, he decides he needs to tell in one way or another. He then concocts the idea of having a funeral for himself while he is alive. This way he can get an idea of what everyone truly thinks of him, and he can set the record straight. The men responsible with organizing and pulling off the feat of making people care about a live funeral for a man they really know nothing about are Frank Quinn (Murray) and his assistant Buddy (Lucas Black).

All in all the movie is a good watch. It’s a good character piece and as usual Robert Duvall is amazing as the old coot. He’s always part mysterious, part comedic, and a small part scary. As always he pulls those off nicely, and steals the movie. Murray is good as the funeral director but I think they sell his character a bit short. It’s possible that they didn’t want to give him too much to do here as it would detract a bit from both the main story and Duvall as a whole, but it still left me wanting a slight bit more out of his story.

Verdict–> There isn’t a whole lot to say about this fairly simple movie other then it’s a good watch. It kept my interest the whole way and I enjoyed the performances. It can be a slight bit slow at times, as most character driven pieces are, but it didn’t keep me from liking it any less. I think this is a good movie, but more for a good winding down bookend of a double feature. People looking for it to be that big draw for a movie night might feel let down slightly. Grab it tho when those top level blockbusters are out at the red box, it’s a good watch.

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