Get Low (2010)

Robert Duvall plays a man his own age (or thereabouts) in this strangely seductive character study of a man at the end of his life. He goes to a local undertaker (ably played by Bill Murray) who desperately needs business, and so he takes on the unlikely task of staging a funeral before there is a body. Felix Bush is a hermit who decides that he wants to have a party to celebrate his life. Yet he seems to be the one who has stood in the way of celebrating. He disappeared into the Tennessee woods 40 years before and hasn't been heard of since. We do gradually come to see what happened, what changed Felix's life and made him run away, from both himself and others. It is a terribly sad story that proves once again that tragedy has a grip that is hard to break free from. This is a movie that moves at a slow Southern pace, and comes to a well wrapped up conclusion. Duvall's character is a complex, conflicted character struggling with his own regrets and sense of mortality -- and he uses his immense talents to convey that character's monumental inner struggle in a way we can all connect with. Felix is a man who seems to relish the gossip-driven mythology that has turned him into a local legend, but he never loses sight of the reason for his current situation. His story is one of guilt, penance, and forgiveness, and as one of the most respected actors of his generation, Duvall conveys all of this in ways that make it feel completely natural.