THE LIVING WAKE Review

Director Sol Tyron's The Living Wake has elements that are endearing for precisely the reason they are off-putting. The florid dialog is precise to the point of being mannered while the performances are broad - but in a way that the roles being played demand. It's particular, this film, but a brand of particular that appealed to me.

The story chronicles what may very well be the last day in the life of K. Roth Binew (Mike O'Connell) whose business cards would likely read, "writer, artist, and professional eccentric." Having learned that he suffers from a disease that is as punctual as it is fatal, K. Roth sets off with his biographer/manservant Mills (Jesse Eisenberg) to wrap up unfinished business. This includes admitting his true love to his septuagenarian nanny, waging war against his neighbor and rival, and attending his own wake as a sort of performer and MC.

The structure of the film is episodic, with K. Roth and Mills rambling around the countryside in a rickshaw working their way through adventures as baroque as K. Roth himself. From what I've told you about the movie, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that these adventures occasionally break into musical sequences or that this is the type of comedy punctuated by tuba and other horns. If you were surprised, then fair warning: this is a movie with impromptu musical numbers and a fair amount of tuba.

I love the sound of Mike O'Connell's voice. Not particularly in the musical numbers which feel funny at first, but then a little overlong. It's the stage acting voice he uses to read his lines that I love, which is full, and throaty with a hint of raspiness in the back. When O'Connell (as K. Roth) speaks you get the impression that he's telling you an elaborately crafted lie that he just happens to believe in the moment for effect. In the sound of that voice you get a sense of what this character is about: building complex fictions about himself and his world to lend his life a grandiosity that it otherwise lacks. I'm not sure that it's an endorsement of the movie itself, but the sound of that voice sold me on the peculiarity of the film and made most of the humor work.

As his loyal manservant/biographer, Jesse Eisenberg does what a character who lives in service to someone like K. Roth Binew would do: drags his boss out of scrapes, gasses the occasional prostitute, and generally keeps his mouth shut. I often got the feeling that he was overplaying his own underplaying of the role if that makes any sense. As K. Roth's neighbor and rival, Reginald, veteran actor Eddie Pepitone seems better equipped at keeping up and knows precisely the right amount of scenery to chew.    

The screenplay by O'Connell and Peter Kline is ridiculous and borders on precious at times, but e the lead character would be ill-served by a story that wasn't ridiculous. I've described some of the events to you but they work better in the weird alchemy of execution and performances and it would be an injustice to try to elaborate on them further save to say that they made me laugh. Visually, the movie looks kind of threadbare at times, with several cramped sets that looked roughly dressed. I'm sure that's in part because of budget constraints, and certainly because K. Roth Binew is such an embellished and baroque individual that you wouldn't want to fill the frame with much else.  

If it sounds like I'm ambivalent towards the movie it's because it's a hard one to recommend unless you're in the groove of its particular (there's that word again) aesthetic and tone. I would recommend that you find an opportunity to be in that particular groove and allow yourself to discover this movie.