A pigeon pushes death away. At least for a while. Or is she perhaps its harbinger? The tragicomic road movie “Place To Be” begins with a double burglary: Brooke (Ellen Burstyn), an older lady from Chicago, is just coming home from her husband’s grave when the pigeon in question flutters around her apartment. She chases them outside, but the bird returns in the night. So she takes care of the animal and sets off on a very special journey. Even if the rest of her family doesn’t like it at all.
This marks a reunion for the Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó. After the drama “Pieces Of A Woman” (5 stars from FILMSTARTS), in which Ellen Burstyn (“The Exorcist”) played a striking supporting role, he is working again with the now 93-year-old Hollywood legend in “Place To Be”. This time, however, he brings Burstyn fully into the spotlight, giving her another big, impressively nuanced screen appearance.
Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi are an unlikely on-screen couple with great chemistry.
Burstyn’s character initially suffers from her life situation. As she herself says, she is writing the last chapter of her life. But what does the happy ending look like? Can there even be one for them anymore, or is there just something left to vegetate? She would like to send her two children (Pamela Anderson and Murray Bartlett) to a retirement home, but Brooke doesn’t even think about it – not to mention the impressive price of the place in the home.
Only the passenger pigeon brings variety and change. Her first stop takes Brooke to New York to find the bird’s owner. Memories haunt her. The Big Apple is transformed into old archive images from the 20th century. And on the train ride, an extraordinary friendship begins. Brooke meets the chaotic real estate agent Nelson (“Thor 3 + 4” director Taika Waititi), whose marriage is ruined and who now wants to sell a magnificent New York apartment.
Can you trust Taika Waititi?
If you want to write more about the content of the film, you quickly get confused. “Place To Be” doesn’t have too much plot. He creates a loose situation and then lets it drift along like a road movie. Real conflicts? Nope! Character development? Actually, hardly at all. The final confrontation that the film is heading towards turns out to be primarily a reflection of the initial situation that it has already established. Well, things are supposed to get dramatic for a moment when the arrogant Nelson lets his unpredictable traits shine through. Can Brooke really trust him?
But these are just short detours on what is otherwise a completely linear journey. Basically, all signs here point to forgiveness and warmth of heart. The film follows how two characters grow together across a considerable age gap and different life experiences and spend a bittersweet time together. Their dynamism is the focus of dispelling dark thoughts and fears.
Emotional cinema and little more
Now the genre of films about seniors who break out of their everyday lives and refuse frailty and paternalism is already full to the brim. “Place To Be” doesn’t do anything new here, but as a feel-good tragicomedy it knows how to play all tones with the necessary sensitivity. Neither more nor less. No matter how corny it may be visually, Ellen Burstyn, for example, looks wistfully after the animals in the sky and dreams of carefree faraway places.
It is, of all things, a flying pigeon that brings Brooke (Ellen Burstyn) out of her rut, which is heading towards death.
The fact that Mundruczó’s film is still captivating despite its formulas and clichés is of course also due to the fact that Taika Waititi and Ellen Burstyn make such a brilliant duo in front of the camera. Two opposite poles are staged: the small, deliberate asides from Burstyn here and the cynical, cheeky nature of Waititi there.
The fact that the two of them harmonize so perfectly as a screen duo is due to Kata Weber’s script, which doesn’t need any big thigh slaps or overly exaggerated arguments between the dissimilar characters in order to build up both comedy and a permanent, subliminal friction between them. Instead, the film lives from its many quiet moments on the journey of the main characters.
The Secret of Ellen Burstyn
So it’s definitely one of the highlights when Brooke talks about her wild years. After all, she experienced the so-called free love of the 60s and 70s. She was married three times. However, she can only really remember two marriages. The rest of the time she was drunk. Burstyn plays such scenes with a nonchalant casualness. If you want to call her acting natural, what exactly does that mean? Certainly also that she is very good at saying sentences as if they came to her spontaneously.
In her monos and dialogues, Burstyn works with a brief hesitation and deliberation, with uncertainty, and sometimes even with a slip of the tongue. Only to react again in the next moment, wide awake and determined. Especially when it comes to standing up to the annoying children. That may not be a sensation in itself. But for a film that is so character-driven, that seeks so sensitively to introspect its characters, such subtleties are half the battle for keeping you glued to its every word.
Conclusion: As a film about dealing with age, “Place To Be” remains too shallow and formulaic to stay in your memory for any length of time. Nonetheless, Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi develop such chemistry with each other that it’s fun to follow the journey of these two unexpected pigeon parents.
We saw “Place To Be” at the Venice Film Festival, where it had its world premiere as part of the official program.