Get Low (2009) - Great stars caught in not very good period drama about a hermit and his funeral

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Contours of the stars against a dark sky and a Robert Duvall looking wise fill out this poster for Aaron Schneider's Get Low

An odd, old hermit, who has lived alone in his forest house for 40 years, comes out into society with a peculiar wish: To arrange his own funeral, which he wants to attend while still alive.

Audiences who expect a comedy will be disappointed here. Despite the involvement of Bill Murray (Coming Attractions (1978)) as an undertaker and short moments of some amusing value along the way, Get Low is clearly most of all a drama, and a small, short story-inspired-like one at that, (although it is actually inspired by a true 1938 Tennessee man.)
The overshadowing problem for the film is that for its entire duration it feels unclear, why this story is relayed to us. This is despite good efforts by Sissy Spacek (JFK (1991)) and particularly grand old man lead Robert Duvall (The Detective (1968)), whose character's outlandish, several decades long hermit life remains a claim that is never illuminated.
Get Low is written by Chris Provenzano (Silicon Valley (2017), TV-series) and C. Gaby Mitchell (Blood Diamond (2006), story), with Scott Seeke (Boxes (2013), short, producer) contributing story elements, and directed by debuting Aaron Schneider (Kiss the Girls (1997), cinematographer), who has kept himself to only operating the camera in his few credits since.  
Get Low is set in Tennessee in the 1930s but doesn't present a vivid portrayal of its time or place either. It is a film with some good parts and an interesting premise, which only makes it more of a shame that it simply doesn't work.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 7 - 7.5 mil. $
Box office: 10.5 mil. $
= Big flop
[Get Low premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Georgia, including in Atlanta. The film opened #32 in 4 theaters to a 88k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #16 and in 570 theaters (different weeks), played for a very long 29 weeks and grossed 9.1 mil. $ (86.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Australia with 491k $ (4.7 %) and Poland with 407k $ (3.9 %), (the film is a US-German-Polish co-production.) Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. The film was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards, winning for Best First Feature. Get Low is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Get Low?