The best and worst thing about Get Low is that it’s all about the performances. The plot and the directing are nothing special. The characters seem to be cut-and-paste clichés of past characters who the two lead actors have often portrayed in the past. The only thing that really makes this worth the trip to the theater is the top-notch performances by Robert Duvall and Bill Murray. In this case, that’s just enough.
Director Aaron Schneider was very smart to cast Robert Duvall in the main role. Duvall is one of the most iconic and talented actors working today. He can take even a poorly written role and make it credible. The character of Felix Bush in Get Low needs an actor like Duvall to make it work. Bush is a cross between an old, clichéd movie Hillbilly and some sort of folk tale image like Rip Van Winkle. He is ornery and cantankerous, with a long and tangled beard that would make ZZ Top laugh. Bush shoots at trespassers and his only friend is a mule. He borders on being preposterous. But that doesn’t matter, as long as Duvall is the one playing him. Duvall makes us believe that this outrageous hermit could logically exist somewhere deep in the hills.
The story begins with a big teaser. A house is burning and the soul survivor escapes, running panicked into the woods. Who is this survivor and how does the scene connect to the rest of the film? That’s the hook whereby director Schneider and writers Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell hope to keep us interested. As it turns out, it isn’t enough, but that’s okay. Duvall and Murray carry the film.
We cut to 40 years later, in depression era Tennessee, where Felix Bush (Duvall) has been living as a semi-legendary backwoods hermit. Lots of stories have sprung up around the mysterious mountain man and none of them are flattering. No one in the nearby town knows much of anything about him but everyone hates him regardless. If they can’t get to know the man, they believe the rumors.
One day, Bush is informed by a minister (Gerald McRaney) that an old friend from his youth has died. After paying a visit to the grave, Bush comes up with an idea. He rides his mule and buggy into town, gathering stares from everyone, and surprises local mortician Frank Quinn (Murray) with his scheme. Bush is preparing to “get low” and wants to have a funeral while he is still alive.
Bush wants his funeral to be a grand send-off and insists that everyone in town come, so they can all tell the stories they have heard about him. He wants to personally listen to all the tall tales that have developed around him before he finally reveals the truth about his self-imposed exile. In order to motivate the townspeople to attend his funeral, he promises to raffle off the vast and valuable acres of land he’s lived alone on for so long.
The mortician’s young assistant Buddy (Lucas Black) is stunned by the proposal but the shrewd and opportunistic Quinn can only see the wad of money which Bush is offering for his services. Quinn has no hesitation about taking the money, despite not being sure he can deliver on all his promises. Buddy is assigned to be Bush’s babysitter, following him around and seeing that Bush has everything he needs to keep him happy. Despite Bush’s loner nature, he begins to like young Buddy and slowly bits of Bush’s past start coming to light. Buddy realizes there is a tragic secret in Bush’s past that he wants to confess for before he dies.
Murray plays Quinn as a comical yet cunning creep, who borders on being unscrupulous but never completely crosses the line into bad guy territory. He has an oily charm that makes his self serving endeavors forgivable. Murray laces Quinn with the same sarcastic wit and unfounded bluster that so many of his previous characters have displayed.
Buddy is a bland character and Black is not a strong enough actor to hold his own on screen with the likes of Duvall. Sissy Spacek has an underwritten role as Mattie, an old flame who comes back into Bush’s life in his last days. The big resolution, when it finally comes, is not all that interesting or shocking. It wasn’t really worth the wait. But never fear. Duvall and Murray are here to entertain us. As the movie goes on, you forget about the story and just enjoy watching a great actor and a great comedian share the screen. They make an otherwise unexceptional film worth watching.
"Get Low" opens July 30, 2010 and is rated PG13. Drama. Directed by Aaron Schneider. Written by Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell. Starring Bill Murray, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek.
