Novels hold many attractions for me, including a good story and great characters. The same is true for movies--I love to lose myself in a good movie, and going out afterward to discuss it with our movie group makes the experience even better. My husband and I have been in an ever-changing movie group, organized through our church, for the last ten years. We've seen some great movies and some real turkeys, but almost any movie is improved by good food and friends.
Our movie choices are determined not only by intense research and lots of email back and forth, but first and foremost by which ones are at the cheap theater. And they have to be showing early enough that we have time to go out afterward and get some of our harder-working members to bed on time.
Recently our group went to see Get Low, a quiet, powerful movie about forgiveness and redemption that came out last year but just made its way to Grand Rapids this fall. Robert Duvall stars as Felix Bush, a hermit who decides he wants to plan his funeral. To occur while he is still living.
The movie is based on a true life story. Felix "Bush" Breazeale lived in Tennessee, and on June 26, 1938 he held his own funeral, with 8,000-12,000 people in attendance. The event attracted curious visitors from all over the country, and it turned Felix into a celebrity for a time. He apparently lived five years past his funeral.
The Felix Bush of the film is a man who has been living with a secret for 40 years, and he feels it is time to "get low"--time to make peace with his past. Robert Duvall plays the lead role--gruff, loner Felix--with understated power, and he has a great supporting cast. Bill Murray is wonderful, funny as ever, as the undertaker who is afraid he will go out of business due to a lamentable lack of deaths in town. He's a salesman and possibly a con man, and he's developing a worrying sense of compassion. His charmingly upstanding assistant is Buddy (Lucas Black), a young man with a wife and a baby, who struggles to balance his need to make a living with his concern about taking advantage of a sad, lonely old man. A graceful Sissy Spacek plays Mattie, a woman from Felix's early life.
The town has developed plenty of stories, true and otherwise, over the years of Felix' self-imposed exile. They are all curious about him and this funeral for their own reasons.
Bill Cobbs is outstanding as Charlie Jackson, a preacher in another town. Felix confided in Charlie years ago, but ignored Charlie's wise counsel. Now Felix wants Charlie to speak at the funeral party.
This movie has a lot to say about the need to confess and be forgiven. Felix would much rather punish himself and earn his own redemption, but it's just not working out for him. When he questions Charlie about his wish to do things his own way, Charlie informs him that "free will is not what it's cracked up to be."
Ponderous and beautiful, the film has more to offer than a great cast. A witty, warm script, gorgeous use of light, and a fittingly lovely soundtrack (including "Lay My Burden Down" by Alison Krauss) add to the power of the story. There are slow moments, but they give you space to consider. It may be time for you, too, to Get Low.
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