tedg
I rarely do this, recommend a bad film. But I will ask if you start this, that you see it through.The film takes advantage of the fact that we have a profoundly well developed notion of a movie romance. We have that here: older woman moves in and that same day asks the old man across the street for a date. They hit it off and have a wonderful Christmas a couple days later. He is a lonely bagger at the local grocery store, and apparently has never had a Christmas with another soul. In the first scene, we see him wrapping a present to himself.For the first very long section, we are dipped in movie love, as we not only see the romance but we see it with an excess of cinematic sugar: when she says she likes him, the entire street lights up with Christmas lights behind her, for instance. There is lots of snow and gauzy happiness. In the filmmaker's defense, we are given some hints that things are not quite right. Our fellow has nightmares of unformed nature. Our love interest across the street is panicked when a prescription goes awry. Our fellow seems to occasionally get confused and borderline violent.And then after an immersion in the sickly romance as perceived by our guy, we have a big reveal. He has advanced dementia. The woman and her daughter across the street is his family and has been for decades, but he has forgotten. He fell in love with his wife all over again. The store where he works is a business he built, now managed by a quirky guy we discover is his son. His wife has been sneaking in every day and preparing meals, drugs (the problem prescription was his) and reminder post-its. This is a pretty disturbing shift, in part because it is so unexpected. Any filmmaker who would stoop as low as we had experienced for an hour, milking the cheapest of tricks would be expected to coast home on those alone. But it does recast what we have seen (and been somewhat affected by) as the last kind of story that a disappearing mind can hold on to. And that is something even the most talent filmmakers fail with much of the time.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
mikechinea
Nick Fackler knocked "Lovely, Still" out of the ballpark. This is a love story at heart that engages you with humor, drama and honesty. Why this movie was overlooked by the Golden Globes, Oscars and SAG awards will be a mystery to me. I would vote it best Indie out there. Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn gave exceptional performances along with Adam Scott and Elizabeth banks. What we think at the beginning is a love late in life romantic comedy between a curmudgeonly elder and a lonely widow turns into a beautifully crafted compelling drama. We all had a father or dear uncle like Martin landau's character Robert Malone who late in life doesn't always seem to be all there. I highly recommended.
Marta
I have to say that I was prepared to really like this film, since it was shot in Omaha by a native Omahan, and it's true the actors were wonderful. The story, however, is more in M. Night Shyamalan's territory. Through the whole film you're watching one story, and then at the end you're switched to a completely different direction that renders what you've watched nonsense. While this type of setup was extremely effective in "The Sixth Sense," it is not meant for this kind of film. Sweet and tender it is not.I felt disgust by what was done to Martin Landau's character, and couldn't believe a wife would perpetrate this on a husband she supposedly loves. I was fully expecting a haunting of some kind from the choppy earlier part of the film, and it had a creepy feeling through most of it, so the end came as a double shock. Definitely not for everyone.
ohnomon
For a first time director/writer, this film is amazing. The sweet and the sour are both represented and displayed in such beautiful style. There is no question that the power of love is alive and well in this amazing story.All of the actors really took to their roles; for me this is always a sign that a great director is behind the project. Can anyone say Clint Eastwood?See this film, and tell everyone you know to see this film. We loved it.Major distribution will pick this one up.
AD
