BEFORE: The first movie with a 2011 release date makes the countdown - "But wait," you say, "I thought the Movie Year was for classic films from decades past that you never got around to!" Very astute of you, of course that's what it's for. But I had an opportunity to attend a screening at the Tribeca Film Festival, now in its 10 year (but I've never had the chance to attend before, despite my festival connections in other cities). Honestly, this was the only film in the guide that really appealed to me - and my boss had a A-level pass, so he made it happen. And as I got booted out of the ticket-holders line (since my connection hadn't shown up with my ticket yet) and I was forced to stand on the curb, who gets out of an SUV but Will Ferrell and his entourage! Walked right past me, about a foot away, and me without a camera! Anyway, I thought that this might have something to do with hoarding, or some other kind of disfunction, so it would tie in nicely with "The Aviator". And of course John C. Reilly links to Will Ferrell through films like "Anchorman" and "Talladega Nights")
THE PLOT: When an alcoholic relapses, causing him to lose his wife and his job, he holds a yard sale on his front lawn in an attempt to start over.
AFTER: It's an overused movie cliché - a man comes home and finds all of his stuff on the lawn or street (sometimes tossed from a third-floor window for added dramatic effect). But what happens next? We assume the man rents a van, loads up his clothing and golf clubs (all off-camera, of course) and moves on with his life. But what if he didn't? What happens next?
In this case, our sad protagonist has also lost his job, company car, and is a relapsing alcoholic. And his wife has changed the locks and frozen his accounts - so he has no resources, no phone, and little money. Can't rent a van, can't move his stuff, he's truly stuck. Plus he's got no motivation, no apparent future, and he needs a plan.
Plan #1 is to buy beer (usually a good plan, but perhaps not in this case). Plan #2 is to arrange the furniture on the lawn into something like a living-room setup, and set up shop there until he can patch things up with the wife. And Plan #3 is something akin to a soul-cleansing yard sale.
It's through these plans, and his interactions with the neighbors, that he slowly starts to put the fragments of his life back together and think about battling back. I don't know if the film could be a commercial success, given the subject matter, but it's certainly got what it takes to be a festival darling - dry humor, dark tone and a lot of introspection.
The film will probably get some flack for having an ending that's very open to interpretation. The three of us who saw the film had three different ideas about what the ending meant. Most likely it meant that the future was uncertain, but isn't that the way that a person's future works?
John Lennon sang about how "Life is what happens while we're busy making other plans." But this film is about those other plans that we have to develop when life happens. I've never had my stuff thrown out into the street, but I have been the one asking someone to move out, and honestly both situations suck.
Also starring Rebecca Hall (last seen in "Frost/Nixon"), Stephen Root (last seen in "The Soloist"), Michael Peña (last seen in "Lions for Lambs"), Laura Dern (last seen in "A Perfect World").
RATING: 7 out of 10 strips of bacon
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