Repo’d man
LUCKY, drama, not rated, Center for Contemporary Arts, 3 chiles
Harry Dean Stanton, the venerable character actor who shuffled off this mortal coil in September at the age of ninety-one, left behind a movie about an old man staring death in the face, and smiling. This first directorial feature from veteran actor John Carroll Lynch
(Fargo) takes Stanton’s old codger through a succession of typical days in a small desert town. He’s known only as Lucky, a name he picked up in the service. He hauls his ancient bones out of bed in the morning, makes some bad coffee, does a few yoga repetitions, gets dressed, and heads out on his rounds. There’s the diner, where he has a better cup of coffee and struggles with the crossword puzzle, there’s the convenience store, where he buys the milk and cigarettes that seem to be his only source of nourishment, then it’s back home to watch some TV game shows, and then off to the local bar for his Bloody Maria and banter with the other regulars.
The movie is an acknowledgment of mortality, a celebration of solitude, and a reflection on friendship. The opening shot follows a tortoise making its laborious way across a road, calling to mind a memorable passage from Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The tortoise, we discover, is a pet named President Roosevelt, making a break for freedom from Howard, a saloon pal of Lucky’s, played with affecting sincerity by David Lynch (the film director, and no relation to this film’s director). President Roosevelt is over a hundred years old, and has been Howard’s cherished companion for a good chunk of that span. But if you love something, let it go.
Stanton dominates the story, but a good deal of its appeal comes in a wealth of unexpected supporting roles. In addition to Lynch, there’s Ed Begley Jr. as Lucky’s doctor, who admits there’s no point in him quitting smoking. The friendly diner owner is Barry Shabaka Henley, and the sympathetic waitress is Yvonne Huff. Tom Skerritt turns up at the diner as a fellow World War II vet, who tells a wartime story that resonates with Lucky. The crew at the bar is filled out with Beth Grant as the earthy owner, and in what is probably the biggest casting surprise, James Darren (of enduring Gidget fame) plays her handsome, laid-back husband.
The whole thing is a tribute to the late actor, with a screenplay, cowritten by his longtime assistant Logan Sparks and Drago Sumonja, that fits him like a skin. The harmonica rendition of “Red River Valley” on the soundtrack is played by Stanton. And one suspects the casting brings together an affectionate party of his good pals.
An unexplained fall in his kitchen brings Lucky to stare down his own mortality. A crossword clue has led him to consider what “realism” means, and for him it’s facing up to the nothingness that lies beyond life’s fade to black. What, he’s asked, do you do in the face of that? He gives a painful shrug. “You smile,” he says. — Jonathan Richards