November 27, 2010 -- The trailer for “Get Low” makes it look like a comedy. After all, it has Bill Murray (“Zombieland”) in the cast who is best known as a comic actor. It turns out this really isn't a comedy, although there is a good deal of humor in it. This is turns out to be a drama about a man with a dark secret in his past. The story carefully and deftly walks on a tight wire between tragedy and comedy.

Murray stars as funeral home owner Frank Quinn, along with Robert Duvall (“Secondhand Lions”) as mysterious hermit Felix Bush, who hires Quinn to organize a funeral party for Bush while he is still alive. Bush attracts a large crowd to his party by adding a lottery for his property, which includes a lot of timber. He also promises to reveal a dark secret from his past. He also invites others who have stories to tell about him. The story is set during the Great Depression, 1938, in a small rural town. It is loosely based on a true story which took place that year in Tennessee.

The hidden secrets in Felix's life begin to emerge slowly as the date of the funeral party draws near. Felix's starts to have second thoughts and wants to back out, but Frank has already spent a lot of money for the party. Felix insists he won't appear at the party without a particular preacher being there, the Rev. Charlie Jackson (played by Bill Cobbs of “Sunshine State”). The Rev. Jackson refuses to attend unless Felix confesses his sins and apologizes to those he has wronged. The Rev. Jackson is the only person who shares Felix's dark secret. Desperate to save the funeral party, Frank goes to see the preacher and tries to persuade him to change his mind.

It turns out that Felix wants to share his secret with the crowd, but doesn't know if he has the courage to tell it. Other characters include Sissy Spacek (“In the Bedroom”) as Mattie Darrow, an old friend of Quinn's, and Lucas Black (“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”) as Buddy Robinson, Frank's assistant at the funeral home. The film is well-written and well-acted by a talented cast of performers. The bittersweet story isn't quite tragic and it doesn't really have real redemption in it, either. It is a story of sorrow and self-imposed exile. The moral of the story has to do with a self-imposed purgatory. Felix has imposed severe limits on his existence. Unfortunately, this limits the scope of the film as well. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2010 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
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