Get Low ***1/2

Duvall's ornery Felix, based on a real character in 1930's Tennessee, parallels the actor's own uncompromising portrayals of faith the way he sees it.

Duvall, who turned 80 in January, has created stark portraits for nearly 50 years, from mentally ill Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) to his Oscar-winning role in Tender Mercies (1983). In the latter he played Mac Sledge, a country singer and alcoholic who has his faith tested when his daughter is killed.

The actor's career turning point was his role in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), where he played calm mob consigliere Tom Hagen.

Duvall wrote, directed and starred in The Apostle (1997), playing a Pentecostal preacher who struggles with temptation. Unable to sell the script, he financed the project himself. His character Sonny Dewey loves God with fervor, even after killing his wife's lover with a baseball bat.

Get Low's Felix is seeking forgiveness for a crime he once committed. He's savored his pain and guilt in a backwoods cabin for 40 years. As the townspeople tell it, he's a loon known for his tirades and "shoot first" policy towards any trespasser (or visitor) on his land.

The crime is not revealed until late in the movie. The only clues we have are a faded photo of a beautiful woman (who he talks to each night), and Mattie Darrow (lovely Sissy Spacek), another woman from his past. Mattie has just moved back to town and knows Felix better than anyone, or so she thinks.

In an interview with National Public Radio, Duvall said that when he prepared to play the man, he captured "a great sense of solitude" and let it "off-handedly lay there within the character."

Suspicious and grouchy, Felix is a droll joker who wants to take responsibility for his past in his own way. He asks a preacher (Bill Cobbs) to speak at his funeral party, but rejects the reverend's idea of how he must atone.

Get Low Director Aaron Schneider won a Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Felix spars with funeral parlor director Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) who is eager to make money in the midst of the Depression. Wonderfully deadpan Murray keeps us guessing about his true motives. Lucas Black plays Quinn's assistant Buddy, a young husband and father who captures Felix's heart.

Despite its twisty misadventures, Get Low never rises from a plain-spoken flatness. It peaks when Felix finally presides over his own funeral party, surrounded by those who fear and despise him.

If you like Get Low, you might enjoy: Biutiful; The Company Men; The American.

Get Low 2009 / PG-13 / 1 hour, 42 min

Cast Overview: Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, Bill Cobbs, Scott Cooper, Lorie Beth Edgeman

Director: Aaron Schneider

Genres: Indie Drama, Dark Comedy, Drama Based on Real Life