Review of Get Low (2010) by Tim O — 20 Mar 2011

Meh, not great and not awful. I enjoyed the film for Bill Murray and Robert Duvall's performances. However, it seems like this was written in a single draft and they never went back to connect anything.

Robert Duvall sets a strong tone as Felix Bush without needing much to say to do it. That takes a true pro. Bill Murray plays a man who is tired of running a business that fails even though everyone in the end needs it.

We all know that Bush has a secret hidden below and that everyone in town has him misunderstood, but what is the real him? We find out in bumps let alone smoothly throughout. It's like Crazy Taxi, go over a big hill and you get the change from the people in back.

Anyway, some people might disagree with me and fight good reason for it, but David Boyd did an awful job shooting the day scenes. Every single shot had hot spots and mostly on people's faces, which in turn caused heavy shadows.

Then at night he didn't bring up the f-stops enough so that we can get a glimpse of anything. I like darkness and mystery, but the scene might as well have been straight black. The heavy light caused everyone's face to be flat in the spots where it was the heaviest.

I love character pieces where you go through the film waiting for enough to be revealed but not everything. However, Aaron Schneider makes it pretty dull and doesn't add much spice to it. He has to rely so heavily on Bill Murray and Robert Duvall, but towards the end when we are with Bush less I was just waiting for it to be over.

And Mattie, good God, how do they not see she needs to be developed more? The ending could have been so much more emotional and heartfelt if they would have made the audience connect with her. The story of a man who wants to get his story out there so he can die with forgiveness is a touching one that keeps the audience wanting to figure out what he has done until the end.

It's not the best, but I guess I'm glad I caught it.