TIFF Review: LOVELY, STILL
Ever see a film that is so sweet that it passes beyond your instrinsic gag reflex and makes you love it despite any misgivings from the brain? From sheer force of screen presence and chemistry Martin Landau and (positively radiant) Ellen Burstyn, they manage to hold the film on the rails and stabilize it amongst young director Nik Fackler's need to inject jittery gimmickry into the narrative. It is perhaps one of the first films about December-December romance that will appeal to the younger set (well if there were any way to get them to see it). It is as if Fackler decided to make his own Away From Her through the editing rhythms of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. Where Sarah Polly had the prose of Alice Munroe as a starting point and captured her story in a straightforward manner, Fackler aims for M. Night Shyamalan, which slightly hurts and cheapens the film in the final act. This film could have been an honest contended for annual Christmas viewing ritual along the lines of It's A Wonderful Life (which unsurprisingly is watched at one point in the film) or A Christmas Story until the rushed final moments, nevertheless, it is Still quite Lovely.
The story follows Robert Malone, a man of advanced years that is so lonely, he meticulously and deliberately wraps a single Christmas present: From Robert to Robert. The opening camera starts on the street of a town in holiday lights that is a modern spin of a Norman Rockwell scene. A panorama of lighted Christmas purity, before stalking into Roberts tidy bachelor home. The only thing amiss are ghostly stains are on the wall where pictures have been removed, as if his life is unfinished somehow. Robert gets up to go to work in the morning, closeups of Martin Landau flossing and brushing his teeth are revealing and interesting and somehow give insight to the warm, yet lonely man that Robert is. On his way out the door he sees a new family moving in next door, he lingers at the scene, but doesn't wave back to the cheery movers. At work, where he bags groceries, he has an amusingly parental relationship with his boss, a goofy David Brent type (for fans of BBC's The Office), who quaintly believes in an Amway styled cook-book scheme to the point where he actually tries to sell Robert on it. Robert politely and delicately declines and wanders on home, alone.
Enter the stunningly beautiful Mary (Burstyn) who gets a meet-cute with Robert by pretty much invading his house. They have a joyously silly awkward moment, before the very forward Mary asks him out on a date. The date and the budding relationship to follow is so wonderfully, cinematically, romantic that you will find yourself drowning in syrupy sugar, yet not want to leave it. This kind of thing can only happen this visually and emotionally perfect in the movies. There is a joy captured in the interplay between Burstyn and Landau that is the simplest of movie magic harkening back to a different period of film, not much seen today. Just let the actors spend time together performing. Guaranteed to burble tears of joy from even the most cynical movie goer, the middle act of the film is sublime in successful and natural manipulation of the viewer. It is not interested in the 'realistic' complexity of the lives of senior falling in mad love along the lines of Paul Cox's wonderful Innocence, but rather intent of movie fantasy (the good kind). It is a remarkable feat that this is even possible in the climate of the uninspired shooting of Judd Apatow and Nora Ephron 'romantic comedy' flicks. And make no mistake, Lovely, Still has a warm generous, even intimate, sense of humour that never belittles Mary or Paul as human beings. The laughs are as natural as a warm, honest smile. And while are strong supporting roles from Elizabeth Banks (An Apatow regular) and Adam Scott, the romance between Robert and Mary and there Christmas surroundings is clearly the focus.
The third act is a doozy though, I believe a major misstep in the film that is difficult to tiptoe around without spoilers. I don't know how to end the film, but I do know that the ending events are at odds emotionally from the rest of the film, and this is very much to the detriment of the film. It is not that they don't make narrative sense, they do very much (like the rest of the film) in a very neat and tidy manner. But a false one, even by the films fantasy standards. Still, the picture is worth a look for two seasoned profession actors allowed full reign on their craft to strut their stuff.
