Solitary cowboy faces life, love
The Hero
(out of 4) Starring Sam Elliott, Laura Prepon, Nick Offerman and Krysten Ritter. Directed by Brett Haley. Opens Friday at the Varsity. 97 minutes. 14A Is there an American actor of more meaningful solitude than Sam Elliott?
He forever seems a man apart, even as part of ensemble films such as the westerns he’s usually associated with — among them Tombstone, The HiLo Country, The Quick and the Dead — and the Coen Bros.’ comedy The Big Lebowski that lovingly exploited his lanky frame, bushy moustache and golden drawl.
Brett Haley’s romantic drama The Hero finds Elliott playing almost a parody of this kind of lonesome cowboy. But he does it with such depth of feeling, it could bring the actor an Oscar nomination, as it did last year for another Sundance premiere: Viggo Mortensen in Captain Fantastic.
The Hero opens with his Lee Hay- den attempting to tape a radio spot that values his voice to sell barbecue sauce but neglects his soul.
Still trading on his fame of the1960s and ’70s, Lee is remembered and revered by western fans, but he’s not in huge demand for satisfying acting gigs. He’s also not on the speed-dials of his arty ex-spouse Valarie (Katharine Ross, Elliott’s real-life wife) or estranged adult daughter Lucy (Krysten Ritter). Implications are that he was a neglectful husband and dad.
Lee knows his failings all too well — his face says it all — but he keeps regret and depression at bay with frequent visits to his pal Jeremy (Nick Offerman), a former actor who now deals in high-quality weed and who shares Lee’s love of reggae and Buster Keaton films.
It’s at Jeremy’s place where Lee meets Charlotte (Laura Prepon), a brisk standup comic who seems interested in him despite their huge age gap: Lee is 71 and Charlotte is in her late 30s. Does she value his company for more than just casual amusement?
Lee is in no hurry to sort everything out, and neither is writer/director Haley and co-writer Marc Basch. But a plot driver comes on fast: a medical diagnosis that Lee can’t just shrug off, as he has some many other things, but which he also can’t quite ’fess up to yet.
“I’m gonna make a movie,” he tells people when they inquire about his health and state of mind.
The slow pace suits the material. Elliott had a more age-appropriate romance in Haley’s previous film I’ll See You in My Dreams, playing opposite Blythe Danner. But Elliott and Prepon both play their real ages here and the awkwardness of their coupling is entirely believable, as is the potential for lasting love.
That movie Lee keeps talking about? It seems to be playing in the background, a western where he’s once again a solitary hombre taking on the world.
“Movies are other people’s dreams,” Lee tells Jeremy. But now, he must address his own fond imaginings, and also his lonely reality, and the quest makes us one with him.