Review of Get Low (2010) by Devon B — 17 May 2011

Robert Duvall has made a great career out of character studies, whether it's "The Great Santini" or "Tender Mercies", and "Get Low" wants to follow in that tradition. Duvall plays an old hermit, living in a log cabin in the woods, apparently a local legend who scares women and kids.

The old hermit, for whatever reason, decides he'd like to give himself a funeral, and have everyone who "has a story to tell" about him to come and tell it. Bill Murray is (as usual) a standout as the shady funeral director looking to make some big bucks off the funeral.

Lucas Black, the kid from "Sling Blade" still has that same southern drawl and a great pair of Bruce Cambell-esqe eyebrows as the funeral director's assistant salesman. But the focus of the story is the hermit, and while ultimately, it is quite an interesting tale, the journey to that end is quite labored.

It's the pacing I have difficulty with, it's the amount of effort required to arrive at the simple points being made. Why should we take these characters so seriously? Because the director says so? "Get Low" is by-the-numbers filmmaking, as uninspired as it's cliched music score.

You need something more than just a relatively interesting idea to make a great film, you need to create something memorable. Even the greatest actors in the world can't make mountains out of mole hills.

Duvall and company maybe chomping at the bit, but there's not much meat on the bone here.