Jack and I really liked this lovely little story about a lovely 70-something woman whose life gets shaken up for worse and better. Blythe Danner nails her portrayal of Carol, and her karaoke of Cry Me a River alone is worth the price of admission (part of it's in the trailer, but the trailer summarizes several of the movie's best moments and I recommend you not seek out said trailer if you haven't seen it already). In an interview the director said that they wanted Carol to sing the Carpenters' Superstar (written by Leon Russell, Bonnie Bramlett, and Delaney Bramlett in 1969, also covered by Bette Midler), but its cost was prohibitive and that turned out to be a good thing.
This is Danner's first leading role, at age 72, after wonderful performances in The Great Santini (1979), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), Another Woman (1988), The Prince of Tides (1991), The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), Meet the Parents (2000) and its Fockers sequels in 2004 and 2010, Sylvia (2003), The Last Kiss (2006), and the wonderful Showtime series Huff (2004-06), to name a few. Carol's friends/bridge partners are great fun as played by 85 year old June Squibb (covered in Nebraska, for which she was Oscar-nominated), 68 year old Rhea Perlman (best known for 270 episodes of Cheers (1982-93), she has dozens of other credits, with no recognition for any of them), and 67 year old Mary Kay Place (profiled in Smashed). Second billed to Danner is 30-something Martin Starr (after I covered him in Adventureland, he's been in 17 episodes of Silcon Valley, now in its second season) as a nice, albeit lost young friend. Sam Elliott, 70, is a warm love interest (my favorites of his work include Mask (1985), Rush (1991), Tombstone (1993), The Big Lebowski (1998), The Contender (2000), Off the Map (2003), Thank You for Smoking (2005), Up in the Air, The Company You Keep, and Draft Day--Jack is a fan of Justified, which stars Elliott without his trademark mustache, but I've seen none of it), and Malin Akerman (last blogged in Wanderlust) is Carol's sweet daughter. The photos of Carol's late husband may look familiar because they are of Danner's late husband Bruce Paltrow, one with their daughter Gwynyth.
I send a special shout-out to the excellent animal wranglers for the docile dogs and a certain black furry creature.
This is director/co-writer Brett Haley's second feature, at age 31. Watch for his cameo as the first karaoke singer. Apparently he and co-writer Marc Basch (in Basch's feature debut) wrote the script in two weeks, shot it in 18 days, and funded at least part of it on Kickstarter.
I can't find any clips to share with you of composer Keegan Dewitt's (of his 30 credits I've seen only Land Ho!) soothing soundtrack but trust me, you'll like hearing it. He wrote the title track and sings the second version of it, over the end credits.
We're with Rotten Tomatoes' critics this time, who average 94% to audiences' 74%. This is good stuff, and not just for the geriatric set.
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