An intentionally tiny but lackluster film suffers many familiar trappings harbored by independent cinema despite the gentle pacing and authentic feel throughout. It is a film I dislike disliking, having so many of the lingering qualities that let each scene breathe on it's own time, something I highly respect and usually don't witness, especially coming from American filmmakers. But here, Old Joy unwisely fills much of the silence and sacredness with nothing but scenery and vague suggestion, which unfortunately totals up to little more then the glorified road trip it seems to be. You get the feeling throughout that director Kelly Reichardt wished to plunge viewers headfirst into experiencing this brief trek into the woods. At first, this technique flourishes with completely immersed realism, effortlessly making viewers the third participant on this little expedition with finely calculated, low budget camera integrity that feels as one with the actors. However, it eventually becomes apparent that this enticingly voyeuristic direction remains a simple distraction in working around a script of very little worth.
Though there may be more implied in the work then what is outwardly manifested, Old Joy still leaves entirely too much up to viewers with it's slightly offensive approach at telling less, meaning more, but hardly putting in the effort to bridge that gap. By the movie's ending, clocking in at a strikingly short 76 minutes, it seems hardly anything was accomplished short of beginning to articulate the meaning of it's title. With a little more character development and an outcome that actually had something to say, Old Joy could have been the lazy westerners Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter..and Spring with all of it's meditative and reverential odes to nature, but here we are left only with a skeleton script and an overindulgence of quiet contemplation to make up for it.
The only two characters really in the film, Will Oldham and Daniel London, are decent enough as the two old friends who reunite for a weekend in the woods. Alt-country sensation Oldham may not have the timing of a professionally trained actor, but it ends up working out fine for this project, only bringing a more realistic credibility in the rare instances he is actually explaining himself. The constant feeling of something more being implied then what we have been given to work with is inescapable though, and ends up sinking this potentially effecting film into a mediocre, if slightly hypnotic, insignificant vacation piece.
Though there may be more implied in the work then what is outwardly manifested, Old Joy still leaves entirely too much up to viewers with it's slightly offensive approach at telling less, meaning more, but hardly putting in the effort to bridge that gap. By the movie's ending, clocking in at a strikingly short 76 minutes, it seems hardly anything was accomplished short of beginning to articulate the meaning of it's title. With a little more character development and an outcome that actually had something to say, Old Joy could have been the lazy westerners Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter..and Spring with all of it's meditative and reverential odes to nature, but here we are left only with a skeleton script and an overindulgence of quiet contemplation to make up for it.
The only two characters really in the film, Will Oldham and Daniel London, are decent enough as the two old friends who reunite for a weekend in the woods. Alt-country sensation Oldham may not have the timing of a professionally trained actor, but it ends up working out fine for this project, only bringing a more realistic credibility in the rare instances he is actually explaining himself. The constant feeling of something more being implied then what we have been given to work with is inescapable though, and ends up sinking this potentially effecting film into a mediocre, if slightly hypnotic, insignificant vacation piece.