Get Low: movie review
With his long, stringy mountain-man beard and unblinking stare, Robert Duvall鈥檚 Felix Bush is not a man to be trifled with. Living hermitlike in the Tennessee backwoods in the depths of the Depression, he totes a shotgun and welcomes guests on his property with the sign: 鈥淣o damn trespassing. Beware of mule.鈥�
鈥淕et Low,鈥� the first feature of director Aaron Schneider, tells the story of how Felix, after 40 years as a recluse, arranges with Frank Quinn (Bill Murray), the local funeral parlor proprietor, to stage his own funeral while he鈥檚 still alive and able to hear what everybody will say about him.
It鈥檚 a common fantasy, of course. But why would Felix, who clearly despises the townsfolk, want to put himself through it?
The answer, when it comes, is a bit soppy, but it all works because Duvall鈥檚 Felix has a lived-in authenticity and a poignancy. This tough old bird can get away with being a sentimental old coot because we already know he doesn鈥檛 give up his secrets lightly.
Not only Duvall shines. Murray, in case anybody still doubted it, is one of the finest character actors in America. Frank鈥檚 exasperation with this ornery client is tempered by the big pay day he foresees. He鈥檚 a slickster who regards the funeral business as, well, a business. His soothing, oleaginous tones are the surest sign that he鈥檚 looking to score.
And yet Murray also humanizes Frank by giving him a core of decency that reveals itself in blurts of exasperation. 鈥淚s it just me,鈥� he asks his callow assistant Buddy (Lucas Black), referring to Felix, 鈥渙r is he extremely articulate when he wants to be?鈥�
There are other terrific performances. Sissy Spacek, playing a woman Felix dated many years before, has a chilling scene with Duvall 鈥� she鈥檚 stricken, he鈥檚 penitent. It鈥檚 like watching two pros give a master class in acting.
Best of all might be Bill Cobbs as the minister whom Felix fruitlessly seeks out to preside over the mock funeral. Cobbs has a sly, roiling wit and a low-slung sense of timing that imbues each of his scenes with a folklorish glow. Cobbs has been acting in the movies, mostly under the radar, since the mid-1970s. He needs to be recognized as one of our best.
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