Lucky, 2017
Directed by John Carroll Lynch.
Starring Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, James Darren, Tom Skerritt and Ed Begley Jr.
SYNOPSIS:
Lucky is elderly and lives alone. When he collapses at home, he realises he has to face up to his inevitable decline and accept it
Harry Dean Stanton’s penultimate film is also his swan song, one that’s released in the UK just a day short of the first anniversary of his death. The fact that he’s gone lingers like a delicate shadow over Lucky as we walk hand in hand with the elderly man of the title who takes a journey of self-discovery as he comes to terms with his own mortality.
He’s alone but, as he stresses, he’s not lonely. He’s never married, has no children – that he knows of – but admits he’s been in love during his life. He has friends, but during the course of the film, has only one visitor and visits only one person and that’s for a family fiesta. It turns out to be an incredibly moving sequence, when he bursts into song and serenades them all with his own rendition of a classic folk song. This isn’t really a story, more combination of a meditation on life and an elegy. Lucky is ninety, he knows his days are nearly numbered – he’s had a health scare – so the fact that he chain smokes, doesn’t eat a great deal and enjoys a few stiff drinks every single evening at his local bar is neither here nor there.
He has no religious beliefs, although he has a strong sense of right and wrong and his outlook on life is probably best described as existential, although he’d probably never use the word and it never crosses his lips. The idea is that everybody is totally responsible for their own actions. Easier said than done. Lucky recognizes that everybody’s perception of the world is different – what he sees isn’t necessarily what another person sees – and taking responsibility for his own actions doesn’t seem to deter him.
He’s surrounded by a Greek chorus of secondary characters. We meet the four legged one at the start of the film, in a desert landscape just outside the one horse border town where he lives. In the corner of the shot, a tortoise lumbers towards a bush but doesn’t seek shelter: it emerges from the other side and continues on. We meet him again at the end of the film. He rejoices in the name of President Roosevelt and belongs to Lucky’s friend and drinking buddy, Howard (David Lynch) who is devastated by him going AWOL. Other regulars in the bar are its owner Elaine (Beth Grant) and boyfriend, Paulie (James Darren). In the diner where Lucky quaffs coffee every day is the manager, Joe (Barry Shabaka Henley), waitress Loretta (Yvonne Huff Lee) and others who drift in and out. Ron Livingston’s lawyer for one, and Tom Skerritt as a WWII Marine. Their stories, either in just one scene or throughout the film, intersect with Lucky’s and they are all as aware as he is that his time is nearly up.
It almost goes without saying that Stanton is great. He’s as effortless as ever, infusing his war veteran with a weather beaten and world weary humour that simply couldn’t be done by anybody else. At one point, we’re given a glimpse of what the town will be like when he and his daily routines – including stopping at the same place and shouting an obscenity at it – are gone. It’s simply not the same without him. As we take this amble through his last days – how many more he has left we don’t know – he grows in our estimation. Facing our ultimate fate is something we all find difficult, whenever it happens.
There’s nothing sentimental about Lucky, nothing mawkish, just a compassionate and unvarnished look at aging. A skinny 90 year old man having a strip wash isn’t a pretty sight, but that’s how it is. Actor turned director John Carroll Lynch has made something more than a film – a tribute to one of the best character actors in modern cinema. And one, you suspect, had his seal of approval.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★/ Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Freda Cooper. Follow me on Twitter.
