Boring Old Joy an Unhappy Adventure

According to the film’s production notes, the new independent film “Old Joy” is, “the story of two old friends, Kurt (Will Oldham) and Mark (Daniel London), who reunite for weekend camping trip in the Cascade mountain range east of Portland, Oregon. OLD JOY is a minimalist story of friendship, loss and alienation in Bush era. For Mark, the weekend offers respite from the pressure of imminent fatherhood; for Kurt, it is part of a long series of carefree adventures. As the hours progress and the landscape evolves, the twin seekers move through a range of subtle emotions, enacting a pilgrimage of mutual confusion, sudden insight, and recurring intimations of spiritual battle. When they arrive at their final destination, a hot spring in an old growth forest, they must either confront the divergent paths they have taken, or somehow transcend tensions in an act of forgiveness and mourning.”

Okay then, well I guess that about sums it up.

I think.

Maybe.

In hindsight, probably not so much.

Personally, I sat in the theater during a Seattle International Film Festival screening bored out of my bloody mind. All this talk of a “pilgrimage of mutual confusion,” transcending “tensions in an act of forgiveness” and confronting “divergent paths” is, at least to me, a big pile of gelatinous hogwash, and the only thing “Old Joy” managed to do was make me want to take a nap.

Seriously, director (who also edits and co-wrote the screenplay) Kelly Reichardt (“River of Grass”) keeps things moving at the speed of dripping molasses, the whole enterprise as focused and emotional as watching a pot of water sitting on the stove attempt to boil. While this handling of things probably does fit within the parameters of the term, “minimalist,” something tells me other great minimalist directors like Yasujiro Ozu or Jim Jarmusch would probably be about as bored silly by the drama as I was.

In all fairness there is a good chance I’m being a bit too harsh. Famed singer-songwriter Oldham (“Junebug”) certainly has some amusingly effective scenes, while London (“Rent”) definitely brings far more emotional depth to his character then is remotely alluded to in the script. In fact, he’s borderline brilliant, investing his character with real warmth, understanding, fearfulness, uncertainty and compassion. I could feel his uneasiness trying to relate to his old friend, his quiet ennui has he pondered what he could do to achieve something close to the brotherly connection they shared in their past. Together they’re great, and in-between bouts of trying to keep myself I awake I was definitely impressed.

But so what? For all this talk about what the movie is about and the themes it is expressing in the production notes, there are scant references to any of it inside the picture’s actual coils. There are hints here and there (talk radio broadcasts concerning the Bush administration, ravaged glimpses of Kurt’s modes of survival, fleeting glances between Mark and his very pregnant wife), but not near enough for this to have any sort of emotional connection or relevance. It’s as stodgy as it is inert, the film about as invigorating and thought-provoking as watching an episode of “Gilligan’s Island” after drinking one too many Mojitos.

I should probably point out the luscious digital photography of the Pacific Northwest landscape is quite remarkable, cinematographer Peter Sillen (“Benjamin Smoke”) doing a masterful job. I also quite liked Yo La Tengo’s (“Game 6”) music; the stripped chords perfectly suited to the emotional minimalism the filmmakers were so obviously aiming for.

They missed, and if I ever have to sit through the movie again I hope someone bops me over the head with a frying pan so I can at least do so unconscious. In fact, the only happy thing about “Old Joy” is the glee I felt when I was able to get out of my seat and exit the movie theater. To steal once again from the production notes, seeing the end credits hit the screen was about the best act of forgiveness and mourning I could have ever hoped for. I guess they got the film’s content right after all.