Lovely, Still

TedFlicks Rating:

$10.50 ticket on a scale of $0 to $13.50.

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS AT CHRISTMAS

“Lovely, Still” was made in 2008.  That it took two years to get distribution says a lot about the movie biz, little of it positive.  To give Hollywood suits a break, pic, the feature helmer/screenwriter debut of Nicholas Fackler, is not easy to distribute.  It defies categorization.  It’s part love story, part Christmas movie, and part weeper — with a generous helping of comic relief.  And despite its short 92 minutes, it gets off to a slow start.

Robert Malone (Martin Landau) is an elderly fellow living alone in a comfortable suburban house that appears to have been caught in a time warp.  With the exception of the cordless phones and his clock radio, nothing in it seems to have been made after 1960.  There are a few odd touches — walls with picture hooks but no pictures; all the houses on the street are lit up for Christmas save Robert’s despite the lights clearly adorning his house.  The sparseness of his environment underlines his loneliness.  Through some expositional scenes, we learn that Robert has a rather un-challenging job working at local supermarket (Shop & Save) owned and managed by Mike (Adam Scott) who comes off superficially as a Sammy Glick but seems to have a heart.  The house seems to be a tad too expensive for a store clerk, but auds ignore the clue, at least for the time being.

One day (December 19) Robert sets off for work, leaving his front door open.  He comes home to find Mary (Ellen Burstyn), the lady who just moved into the house across the street, wandering about his ground floor, looking for him.  He freaks, orders her out of the house, and then relents.  So far, so good.  This is one of the most original meet-cutes your critic has ever seen.  It’s the beginning of love among the ruins with a cast up to the task.

A romance ensues.  Mary asks Robert out.  He accepts.  Now opening scenes of Robert’s almost dazed existence begin to make sense.  Instead of sleepwalking his way through shaving and brushing his teeth each morning, he is energized, attacking the tasks with enthusiasm.  One is led to believe that the change in Robert is just that of a lonely guy finding romance for the first time in years.  Mary’s daughter, Alex (Elizabeth Banks), is against the date.  Too dangerous, she says.  Mom is determined.

There follow some of pic’s funniest scenes as Robert asks boss Mike and a co-worker for dating advice.  Mike advises Robert on what to wear, where to go, and takes Robert shopping for the “perfect Christmas gift” for Mary.  While not exactly farcical, these scenes are funny, and Mike’s over-confident dating advice to Robert is comically undercut by his strikeout (make that “wipeout”) with a cute girl in a bar (Kali Cook).

The romance between Robert and Mary heats up.  They play together like kids, sledding down hills in a local park.  Listening to the carolers.  Acting like two kids in love for the first time.  The chemistry between Landau and Burstyn fairly crackles.  It is a joy to see two veterans who have not lost a step, indeed, two vets at the top of their games, play opposite each other.  The meet-cute and ensuing romance are convincingly played.

Helmer Fackler offers a number of nice touches, not the least of which is the pair’s post-mortem on their first date set against the soundtrack of “Oh Holy Night.”  Especially funny is a scene wherein Robert and Mary have the idea to telephone each other at the same time…and keep getting “busy” signals.

Looks like a Christmas romance, right?  Boy meets girl.  Boy gets girl.  Now comes the hard part, where “Lovely, Still” proves to be anything but ordinary or formulaic.  Pic is one of revelation.  While that in itself is a formula, it is handled with great originality here.  Boy thinks he loses girl but in fact he doesn’t.  They attend the town’s Christmas Eve party.  Robert becomes jealous thinking that another guy is putting the moves on Mary.  A tad socially phobic, he goes to have a seat alone when a little girl approaches him and says, “Hello, Robert.”

“Hello, little girl,” he replies.  “Who are you?”  She burst into tears and runs away.  Call it big clue #1.

Eventually, Robert encounters Mary.  He explains his suspicions and his fear that he has made a fool of himself only to be told that “Buck” (the other guy) gave her a Christmas present for him.  Robert replies in disbelief.  “Buck is your brother,” Mary tells him.  Big clue #2.

An incident on Boxing Day involving some missing meds, which Robert takes every morning, leads to an apparent psychotic break.  Robert panics when he wakes up and cannot find Mary (the two started sleeping together after the second date — not bad, Robert).  Mary has gone to refill the prescription.  At first auds are led to believe that the meds are hers, not his.  But the opposite soon becomes evident.  When she returns to Robert from the pharmacy, he says, “Don’t ever leave me!”  She replies, “It’s you who are leaving me.”  Big clue #3.

Some poignant scenes and more exposition inform auds that Robert and Mary are in fact an old married couple; that he suffers from a sort of progressive dementia; that Mike and Alex are their kids; and that he was once the owner/manager of the supermarket where he now works.  The revelations explain a good many dangling participles — such as why Robert gets such an easy time of it from boss Mike, why a co-worker at the store calls him, “Sir,” why pictures are missing from the walls of Robert’s house, how he let his car crash into his garage door.  Pic omits a lot of backstory, but auds can impute it from the final reel, which adds to its appeal.

Some of the exposition has to do with photographs on the wall of the house across the street where Mary and Alex live.  There is much to be said for a long acting career, which both Landau and Burstyn boast.  Little Photoshop is required to create a photographic history of such characters.  Landau’s TV career goes back to 1953.  His feature film career began in 1959, and his second picture is the extraordinary Alfred Hitchcock flick, “North by Northwest.”  Tons of images of a younger Martin Landau exist.  The same can be said for Burstyn with a feature film career beginning in 1964 and a TV career beginning when Eisenhower was the American President.  Pic’s final reel, which so totally redeems its slow start, owes a lot to those ancient publicity stills.  It has been done before, but in this context it is very effective.

Tech credits are adequate.  Sound recording leaves no holes.  Editor Douglas Crise is up to par.  Some mildly cheesy special effects in dream sequences reflect pic’s estimated $5 million budget, but they make their points.

“Lovely, Still” is rated PG.  There is nothing in it inappropriate for children, and it will probably make the rounds on Lifetime or a similar cable TV network.  But if you go, get a babysitter.  The kids won’t understand it.

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