Another week, another Kermode introduces. And as these weeks go by, I become more and more pleased with my decision to do reviews based on his recommendations. Not necessarily because they are all home runs (although there also haven’t been any damp squibs yet either) but just because I get to see such a variety of different film including those I may never have watched without these recommendations. Today’s film is one of those. ‘Lucky’ (2017) is a film I have known of for a while, but it never really interested me in any way. But my hand has been forced by Mark, and maybe this film would be the one to teach me not to judge a book by it’s cover. The film follows the titular Lucky (Harry Dean Stanton), a 90-year old loner, who spends his days doing crosswords, yoga exercises, and watching game shows. After he takes an unexpected fall one day he is forced to face his own mortality head on.
So, did the film teach me not to judge a book by its cover? Well, yes and no. I did end up enjoying the film and I am glad I watched it, but I only enjoyed it as much as I thought I would so in that regard my preconceptions were correct. The film is very solidly directed. The cinematography works great in giving the film a sense of community and closeness, as well as loneliness and seclusion which are the themes of the film. Narratively there isn’t exactly much to go on. There is no real clear story, it is just a film about a man coming to the end of his years trying to face the idea that he is mortal. There is not antagonist or big evil to fight and that give the film a real breezy atmosphere as you are just asked to follow this character around and it does work. This is mostly because of the really strong performances and the quirky characters that make up the community in which the film takes place. The strongest performance does come from Stanton who is brilliant in the role of lucky. He manages to portray such strong emotions in a subtle but clear way and you really feel like you are watching a real person rather than a character. David Lynch is also in this film as an actor and I am not sure what to think about his performance. On the one hand I don’t think his line delivery is very good at all, but on the other his character is one of the quirkier ones in the film and so I kind of works? I don’t really know, but what I am sure of is regardless of quality he is entertaining to watch. The soundtrack is exactly what you would expect, acoustic country songs mixed with a score mostly made up of harmonicas, with a Johnny Cash song thrown in. Not surprising but it works for what the film is going for.
The film does have a bittersweet environment throughout. Although there is no antagonist to speak of there is a growing sense of sadness as the film goes on and Lucky becomes more aware that death is near, and you really do feel this through the film. It never becomes a genuine tearjerker (although I don’t tend to cry at films so this may just be same) but it does have genuine emotion throughout and does a good job of making you think of your own mortality. It isn’t afraid to attack the topic of death head on and it comes away with a positive outlook on it. This is where the sweet of the bittersweet comes. The film does not take a wholly negative look at the idea of death, instead exploring the inevitability of it as, while not a positive, something to not be afraid of. The film does mostly a very good job of this, although there is one scene towards the end of the film where it becomes a little too heavy handed and melodramatic. I actually found it kind of comical which is definitely not the emotion that the filmmakers were going for. But that doesn’t take away from how effective the rest of the film is in conveying its message and its emotional core and that is mostly due to Harry Dean Stanton’s performance. And of course, the film does have added emotion, and feels like a love letter to its lead star, who did die the same year as the film was release, adding a real weight to the message of the film.
‘Lucky’ is a film that succeeds in what it is trying to do, and I did enjoy it, but it isn’t a film that I would say I loved or bowled me over. Harry Dean Stanton puts in a great performance and the film does have an emotional weight behind it, but it never steps into being a hugely powerful film. Whether it is trying to be or not I don’t know, but as it stands it is a bittersweet watch that I did enjoy on the whole. It also has the feel of a film I may appreciate more with time. I would also recommend it. It does have an emotional core that may affect you more than it affected me. We may have not hit a bad film from these Kermode choices yet, but I would say this would probably be bottom of the pile of the films so far.