Review of Lovely, Still (2009) by Nick C — 19 Mar 2012

I have no problem freely admitting this: I started watching Lovely, Still for a few reasons: firstly, it was available to watch instantly on Netflix, secondly, I wanted to kill half an hour before going to sleep (I watched it in increments) and lastly, I wanted to add another film to my list of Adam Scott films and/or Elizabeth Banks films watched. I wasn't expecting much, but like many good films, Lovely, Still seemingly comes out of nowhere and packs a wallop for those that do happen across it.

Let's start off with the basics: this is a film about eldery love. It's stylish, artsy and, at times, tries to seem almost dream-like in the perfect world of its characters. The man, Robert Malone (Martin Landau) meets the woman, Mary (Ellen Burstyn) and they hit it off from the beginning. The story, told mostly from Robert's perspective, opens up a world of possibilities as he is experiencing love for the first time. Never before has he been this happy.

As the film progresses, it's not hard to appreciate how adorable our characters involvement is nor is possible to deny that there's a real world factor playing into the story as the dialogue is often short, but sweet; nothing overly profound as this is just simple love. However, a simple love story hardly makes a film. Throughout, the film tries to over-emphasize their love. For example, when they share their first kiss, the entire park just happens to switch on its Christmas lights at the same time. Likewise, Robert and Mary find themselves calling each other at the exact same time which results in them each getting a busy signal on the other line. An hour into this love story and still no real benefit.

Then Lovely, Still becomes a movie. Prior to the film's grand unvieling, the only emotion evoked was one of sweetness, but certainly there's got to be more to a life of love than that. As the film leads its audience down a path that only seems to lead to mush and happiness, the thought of any sort of twist or wrench in the character's plan seems less likely. However, one difficult, though non-universal truth lies ahead. With old age comes happiness and sadness. What you think is new may just be a rekindling of a feeling you forgot existed. The final twenty minutes are a rollercoaster and filmmaking at its finest. Simply, happiness can be found in ways you never expect while at the same time never leaves you. Life has a way of being cruel. With happiness comes sadness and sometimes its not possible to sit back at the end of your life and look back on what you've created and the memories you've made.

I highly recommend this movie. Landau and Burstyn are phenomenal. It may be hard to find, though. Shit doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.