Friday, February 19, 2016

Film Review: TUMBLEDOWN

Tumbledown may already be playing on a TV set near you. It's hard to imagine it will be showing in any theater in any big city for more than a week. I saw it at a restaurant with an in-house theater on a winter's day in small-town Maine, which was fitting since it takes place in a small town in Maine in winter.

Starring Jason Sudekis of "Saturday Night Live" and Rebecca Hall who I never heard of before but apparently has been around the block a few times, just not any block I was on, it's a romantic, bittersweet, predictable look at love and grief and writing and music and mostly how adorable boxers --the dogs not the underwear -- can be. There are two of them in this movie and luckily they have tons of screen time which is a good thing since they provide the only smiles.

A young widow (Hall) living alone in a cabin in the woods (with her two dogs) is hung up on her dead hubby, a cult figure in the folk music world who died young and tragically, with only one supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 12-song album under his belt. A New York writer (Sudekis) goes to Maine to interview her for his forthcoming book on dead musicians. After much ado set against lovely postcard scenery including sunsets, frozen lakes, mountains, sunsets over mountains and sunsets over frozen lakes (see photo), the grieving widow and the visiting professor finally stop hurling insults at one another and fall in love. One can assume they live happily ever after, until or unless this guy falls off a cliff too.

Blythe Danner is featured as the widow's mother. She is, as usual, fabulous.

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