Directed Megan Griffith
Starring Toni Collette, Thomas Haden Church, Oliver Platt
Ellie Klueg (Toni Collette) is a rock journalist that is stuck in a holding pattern. She still drinks, parties and sleeps around like she is in her 20s, but her lack of online appeal at her magazine seems to place her best days squarely in the past. When her editor (Oliver Platt) gives her a last chance for a story, she tries to track down missing Seattle rock legend Matthew Smith, a singer that was on track to be bigger than Nirvana but disappeared a decade ago, and a man that Ellie was also intimately involved with. Teaming up with another ex, a retired dot-com millionaire turned wannabe documentary maker (Charlie – Thomas Haden Church), she tries to follow a trail of rumoured sightings and ends up not only examining Smith’s past, but her own.
The plot of Lucky Them is a bit of a hot mess. What is a fairly straight forward story meanders into what can charitably be described as character development (but is closer to padding) as it veers away from the search to examine Charlie’s and Ellie’s new found romances. It is inconsequential and causes this rather short film to drag. What pulls it through is the dialogue and the chemistry between Collette and Church. The awkward friendship they forge is really the heart of this film and gives opportunity for both actors to shine.
In many ways the two characters are bizarro mirror images of the other. Ellie is a gender-flipped man-child, still acting as if she was in her 20s and living in the ’90s. She goes to clubs, drinks, hooks up, and can’t understand why her boss would want her to do work, or not be awake for her 3am phone call. By contrast Charlie is already in his second retirement, after having sold two scratch-built businesses (and being born to money). He is rigid and off-putting, with no concept of a mental filter. Watching these two actors bounce off each other from polar opposite positions is pure joy. Collette is natural in her portrayal, seeming to live the role, wearing her leather jacket like a second skin. While Church is dealing with such an obviously fictional character that he can do nothing but act in a stage-like manner. He commits himself to the role and somehow has enough personality to make the absurdity work.
Whereas the script fails on plot, it actually succeeds in providing a constant stream of pithy and insightful dialogue. Lucky Them manages to pass valid comment both on the nostalgia for the ’90s grunge and current hipster culture. It feels like the work of an insider lovingly pointing out the absurdities. Ultimately though, it perfectly captures Ellie’s struggle with growth, change and letting go, as she starts to fear her own irrelevance in an evolving industry.
A flawed but enjoyable gig.
DAVID O’CONNELL
