It would be a movie about a broken heart looking for tenderness at the end of its life. “A Love Song.”Max Walker Silverman’s debut feature, a miraculously radiant film, tells the tale of a Western romance that takes place amid stars and birds, delayed letters, brief encounters, and the worthwhile pain of wanting to love.
Faye Dickey, a lonely widow, is content with her self-sufficient life and eagerly awaits the arrival a guest from the Colorado mountains. She catches shellfish to eat at campsite seven and listens to her radio to get her emotions in order. It is a battery-powered portal that connects her to her emotional state, playing the right tune at the right time.
With early shots of sturdy flowers, gorgeous in their bravery as they thrive on arid ground, Walker-Silverman makes a visual analogy to his leading lady’s gentle fortitude. She can see that time has created a map of her soul from decades of joy and sorrow. Now, as she sits outside her camper, her hopes are for her final days to be filled with companionship.
Faye, though almost alone, does occasionally come in contact with people in the surrounding area, each on their own affection driven quests: a young cowgirl (Marty Grace Dennis), who is polite and shy, and her older brothers, John Way, who are polite and ask permission to dig a meaningful trench, and a postman (John Way), as well as a couple of lesbians in which one fears falling for commitment.
At times, the tone of these visits approximates that of Wes Anderson’s amusingly offbeat works in the eccentric quality of the supporting performances and their florid dialogue, as well as in how the camera behaves around them, such as the use of a knowing pan to accentuate a humorous exchange between Faye and the well-mannered siblings.
An actress playing character in rugged family sagas. “Winter’s Bone”And “Leave No Trace,”Dickey takes on a rare role as a lead, a display of hardwearing grace that showcases her decades-long career. In place of the sternness she was previously perceived in, Dickey plays a more relaxed role. “A Love Song”A measured openness to the people and the land
Dickey is a force of subtlety. She can take the character from anticipation and resignation to finally to a life-affirming and unspoken epiphany. Faye protects her most vulnerable parts with an armor of solitude and heartbreak-laden lyrics until her high school crush Lito (Wes Studi), who is now a widower, arrives at her door.
The two former classmates reunite to share their 10th-grade adventures, maybe to rekindle their relationship for the twilight years. They navigate this reunion with caution and curiosity, having both lost their life partners. In the ballad of Faye and Lito, the director undercuts sentimentality, preventing the soundtrack from soaring unchecked with the exception of Faye and Lito’s impromptu live performance of Michael Hurley’s “Be Kind to Me”
Studi matches Dickey’s unassuming sincerity, not only in that heartening musical duet but also in the comforting quietness of their confessions about what they’ve lost and what remains. It may seem familiar to many, but to witness these accomplished thespians doing such exquisitely subdued works is to rediscover them.
In each other’s company, the decades that distanced the characters, and the countless experiences they lived through separately, vanish momentarily in the childish delight of an ice-cream cone or in the way a candid photograph can reveal the essence of a person. The lack of expectations or judgment that they will have a happily ever after is what makes their outdoor rendezvous so charming. They see what they get, no matter how long it lasts.
Walker-Silverman repeatedly associates the landscape with Faye’s human preoccupations. While she laments how the water level of the lake has decreased from what she remembers, or how perhaps sheep are no longer pastured in the nearby peaks like they were in her father’s day, she also seems to be longing for the simpler days of youth. Yet the narrative demonstrates that not all is lost: Faye’s inner glow, embodied in Dickey’s demure expressions, hasn’t eroded. She should feel the joy of being alive again.
Thanks to the exuberant eye of cinematographer Alfonso Herrera Salcedo, who plays with natural light as it grazes Dickey’s skin and makes the water glisten, the picture brims with mutedly arresting imagery. A shot of Faye’s silhouette becoming one with the mountains under a star-spangled sky makes for one of the film’s most imposingly spiritual passages.
Comparative analysis of recent Oscar best picture winners “Nomadland”Both movies are produced by Dan Janvey. There will be plenty of them, but it would be great if they were all together. “A Love Song” is similar to Chloé Zhao’s reimagining of the American west, it is in both films’ delicate touch in blending the grandeur of nature with the fragility of the unvarnished human condition.
More than just an auspicious debut, this is a young director’s succinct statement on the possibility of being enamored with the wonderment in the mundane. Walker-Silverman exhibits the sensibilities of a master storyteller, capable of making his splendid writing seem effortless in its construction and then molding it into warm magic via the cast’s remarkable talent. He’s an absolute revelation among emerging voices.
A film as transcendentally beautiful and moving as 2022 is likely to see. “A Love Song”A cinematic rhapsody in whispers about truth, which confirms that love is possible, for a lifetime or a moment.
“A Love Song”The 2022 Sundance Film Festival will host its world premiere.