Here’s a film we didn’t see the younger bloggers (and a lot of people) really giving a shit about. But thesps like Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn (whom we adore) in a story about a late-life courtship that keeps the bachelor Landau in a “constant state of wonderment and surprise”?
Yeah, “Lovely Still” totally sounded like something we’d love to see.
Boy, were we wrong. The film is directed by a 24-year-old video director Nik Fackler — and the kids intentions were on the money. How does one put a fresh twist on a love story? Make it with senior citizens; members of society that obviously don’t get their viewpoint shared in films very often. So we applaud Fackler, for not making us sit through another white-20-somethings-in-love story, but his clumsy handling of what could have been a really sweet film was rather painful at times.
Supported by Adam Scott (the jackass older sibling in “Step Brothers”) and Elizabeth Banks, the acting in the picture was mostly solid, with Burstyn being a total stand-out; but what the script required from Landau was often making him into a hapless fool, and it was embarrassing to watch him flailing around.
There’s also a major plot twist in this film usually reserved for the likes of dildos such as M. Night Shyamalan, which doesn’t help the film’s hackneyed approach one bit. As you can probably tell by our intro and by the piece we did about the music (the film was scored by Bright Eyes members Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott, but apart from one twinkling motif that begins midway through, we didn’t have a lot of super positive things to say about their score, especially in the first half), we wanted to like this film. The idea sounded fresh and winsome. There were even a few moments of true melancholy courtesy of the amazing Bursytn, and a scene or two of genuine bittersweetness. Maybe in a couple years with a bit more work under his belt Fackler can deliver the goods, but as of right now, “Lovely, Still” wasn’t particularly beautiful at all [C].
