Alternative Media Group

GET LOW

Author:

Komi Sellathurai

Posted:

Monday, 16 May 2011

Movies don’t get any better than this. The low down on Get Low is that it is a clever little story about the very idea of storytelling. And hey, it doesn’t hurt when you have brilliant actors like Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek telling that tale. As funeral director Murray whines about going out of business, “What do you do when people just don’t die,” in walks Duvall’s Felix Bush with a wad of cash to buy a funeral, for himself. The catch? Bush, the recluse, has been living in the woods away from civilisation for 40 years. Rumours have it that the man had murdered in cold blood and even possesses special powers. So Bush’s idea of a living funeral where he wants people from all over town come tell a story they’ve heard about him seems not just morbid but ludicrous. But thanks to Murray’s, “genius”, seats are sold for the funeral show like lottery tickets to win Bush’s isolated plot of land when he’s actually passed. Get Low builds like the perfect three-course meal towards a sweet ending where Bush tells the most compelling story – the real story about his life. There is a very simple truth I took away from this film – no one’s life is ever lived without having an effect on others, even if more than half of it was in seclusion. And that’s why in 2011, we are watching a movie which is loosely based on a real-life Felix Bush who lived in Tennessee in the 1930s. Hakuna Mata people – life, death and a whole bunch of beautiful stories in between and beyond. Get Low is highly recommended. (KS) ****

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