Lucky

source: Lucky

Harry Dean Stanton's second to last film role and the final film he saw to the end. A film about an old man, whose prodigious age is finally catching up with him in a small American town. The film certainly has a message to carry, something to say to its audience. Unfortunately, while the central themes - those of death, loneliness, regret and remembrance - are clear enough, nothing much gets said about them. Or rather, the film tries to have so many conversations happening at once that none of them gets enough focus to crystallize into something. The film is certainly pretty enough, though. The Arizona desert provides some profoundly beautiful landscapes and serves as a fitting background against talk about dying and having lived an imperfect life. Acting is also nice, the characters are suitably personable and feel like real people. It's just the script that keeps it all from being anything at all. It very much feels like I'm witnessing a commemorative final episode of a decades long TV series. Which is kind of fitting, admittedly, but at the same time it's not like I'm going to get anything from watching such an episode. I cannot help but feel like this is one of those films that I just don't get. The critics seem to love it, so apparently there is something to get. I just don't.

"Lucky" (2017 release; 90 min.) brings the story of an old man whom everyone calls Lucky. As the movie opens, we watch a turtle walk across the cactus landscape somewhere in the Southwest. We then get to know Lucky, as he gets ready for the day and does his daily exercises, all while smoking a cigarette. Other than a couple of milk cartons, his fridge is empty. Lucky gets breakfast at the small town's diner, where he does word puzzles. In the evening, Lucky meets up with his buddies at Elaine's, one of 2 bars in town. Howard tells of Mr. Roosevelt, his beloved turtle who has escaped. Next morning, as Lucky is starting his daily routine, he blanks out and falls. When he wakes up, he is in a doctor's office. What will become of Lucky? At this point we're 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the pot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out. Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from director John Carroll Lynch, who most recently brought us "The Founder" and "Jackie". Here he goes a very different direction, namely to give legendary Hollywood actor Harry Dean Stanton one last lead performance, in a role specifically written for Stanton. Lucky is, like Stanton in real life, 90 years and grew up in Kentucky, so this is almost (but of course not quite) a look at the real Harry Dean Stanton. There are some fine secondary roles in this, including David Lynch as Howard the turtle guy (Stanton has played in a number of Lynch movies), and Tom Skerritt as the WWI Marine veteran. But in the end this is all about watching Stanton, who remained in full control of all of his acting talent (check out the scene where Lucky attends a Mexican fiesta...). As it turned out, this was indeed Stanton's very last film (he passed away exactly a month ago today), and what a towering last performance that turned out to be! You can bet your last dollar that Stanton will get a posthumous Best Actor Oscar nomination for this. "Lucky" finally opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was not attended well (5 people, including myself), That is a darn shame. I imagine interest in this movie will pick up coming the awards season. If you want to see an amazing actor at work in the last part of his life, in a movie that is rich in so many ways, I'd suggest you check this out, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

There aren't any other movies like this one. No answers, just the blue sky and the desert. Who else gives us the end of our lives so bleakly, so movingly, and so warmly? At the very end Lucky spots Mr. Roosevelt, the tortoise who escaped Howard's yard and will live--probably--another hundred years, and he almost smiles. That's about the size of it for him. And for many of the rest of us.