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How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 9 January 2014
This article is a review of LUCKY THEM.
Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013. (For more information, click here.)
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“There’s a crispness to the writing I enjoy,” Charlie (Thomas Hayden Church)
A rock critic banging their younger interviewees might have been yawn-inducing, had it not been a middle-aged woman as the music journo. Male mid-life and quarter-life crises have been well documented; at last women are being given meaty, charismatic stories – see also YOUNG ADULT and AFTERNOON DELIGHT. Toni Collette should have more leading roles. Her Ellie Klug unshowily owns the screen.
Celebrated singer Matthew Smith didn’t show up for a gig and sped off into the night. That was 10 years ago. Like the abominable snowman, rumours of sightings occasionally surface. His evaporation haunts Ellie. Seattle, USA, still viewed as a hipster hangout. The accoutrements of self-consciousness fill Klug’s apartment: Vinyl from floor to ceiling and a MacBook Pro, with ennui thrumming off her. Where malaise starts and the cultivation of malaise begins is unknown even to Ellie. Heartache ferments. Matthew was not only someone Ellie was a fan of, they were a couple. Romantic wounds hopefully heal; desertion so sudden here has cut deep enough to need the numbing effect of unemotional sex and the willingness to party hard. Not suffering fools is Klug’s modus operandi, over whiny woe-is-me patience testing. But we all have blind spots.
A rock critic banging their younger interviewees might have been yawn-inducing, had it not been a middle-aged woman as the music journo. Male mid-life and quarter-life crises have been well documented; at last women are being given meaty, charismatic stories – see also YOUNG ADULT and AFTERNOON DELIGHT. Toni Collette should have more leading roles. Her Ellie Klug unshowily owns the screen.
Celebrated singer Matthew Smith didn’t show up for a gig and sped off into the night. That was 10 years ago. Like the abominable snowman, rumours of sightings occasionally surface. His evaporation haunts Ellie. Seattle, USA, still viewed as a hipster hangout. The accoutrements of self-consciousness fill Klug’s apartment: Vinyl from floor to ceiling and a MacBook Pro, with ennui thrumming off her. Where malaise starts and the cultivation of malaise begins is unknown even to Ellie. Heartache ferments. Matthew was not only someone Ellie was a fan of, they were a couple. Romantic wounds hopefully heal; desertion so sudden here has cut deep enough to need the numbing effect of unemotional sex and the willingness to party hard. Not suffering fools is Klug’s modus operandi, over whiny woe-is-me patience testing. But we all have blind spots.
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Once a lauded music writer, Ellie’s career is on the slide. Editor of her publication, ‘Stax Magazine’ (wait till you see the offices, it makes Pete’s in THIS IS 40 seem restrained in comparison), Giles (Oliver Platt), demands a substantial piece from her. You guessed it: The article is about Matthew Smith. Of course the assignment is the catalyst for confronting long suppressed yearning. Talk of shareholders and position on the line is the thinly veiled ultimatum Giles uses to motivate the publication’s star scribe. Platt brings his usual over-anxious rat-a-tat charm to a small part that keeps LUCKY THEM flavoursome.
An unexpected sidekick on Klug’s mission is a chance meeting at a party with the hilarious, moustachioed Charlie. Hayden Church delivers a performance so dry as to make you wonder whether he has some sort of mental deficiency. Far from brainless, Charlie has just made $50 million on an I.P.O. Now bored, and looking for a project to occupy copious free time, he has decided to become a documentary filmmaker. As you do. Agreeing to fund Ellie’s search for Matthew, despite admitting to hating music, Charlie tags along. Klug is not an investigative journalist and could use the help. Their frank exchanges zing.
Who doesn’t love a road trip movie? LUCKY THEM segues into one containing plenty of detours. Oh, and there’s an absolute doozy of a cameo. Attempting to get over someone has rarely been as engaging.
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