Viewed in
2011
Formats
DVD
Premise
Robert Duvall plays a 1930's American town hermit who hires a local undertaker (Bill Murray) to throw him a funeral party, while he's still alive.
Loved
The cast.
Thoughts
A nice little film.
The cast was fantastic. Duvall had the perfect charming mix of grumpy, scary and regret in his performance. Murray smartly played the fourth fiddle unselfishly. Sissy Spacek was solid as usual. Relative unknown Lucas Black actually had the second biggest role, and definitely held his own with the three greats.
Story-wise, it had some humorous moments with the premise of a living man wanting to attend his own funeral and Duvall's character just being a bad-ass grouch. This plan had an ulterior motive, which led to some darker, somber revelations about his character, with decent emotional payoffs. I also enjoyed the small moments, like the lyrical, insightful dialog about mortality, guilt, and life stuff.
Those tricked by the limited marketing into thinking this was a funny buddy movie co-starring Duvall and Murray will probably be disappointed. In reality, it was more of a somber character drama with a sprinkling of amusing.
Another flaw was giving away hints of Duvall's character's truth in the first scene. The more mysterious a hermit it, the better the revelation.
If you like the cast, you should really enjoy this film. It might not be memorable, but sometimes it's just worth the time to watch old masters at their craft of acting.
What I would change
Done away with the first scene.
