Moving 'Nostalgia' and its first-rate cast capture power of memories
“Nostalgia” - ★ ★ ★
One of the first images in the film “Nostalgia” is of an heirloom necklace on the neck of a waitress. One of the last images is of a puffy cloud, shifting in the wide sky.
Between these symbols of permanence and flux is a deeply meditative movie about time, loss and the stuff we fiercely hold onto along the way.
Directed by Mark Pellington with a screenplay by Alex Ross Perry, the film is a mosaic of interconnected stories, linking a grizzled grandfather (Bruce Dern), an insurance assessor (John Ortiz), a widow (Ellen Burstyn), a memorabilia dealer (Jon Hamm) and his family.
Ortiz's patient, empathetic assessor is the glue that connects the first two characters we meet, the first of which is the grandfather, whose home is filled with personal mementos that are priceless to him but junk to anyone else. His pregnant granddaughter wants to know everything's value. But what is the price of memories, of old love letters?
The assessor next visits the widow, whose house has burned down. She had a split second to save as much as she could and, after grabbing jewelry, snatched her husband's prized baseball.
That ball leads Burstyn to Hamm as she debates what to do with an object that meant so much to her husband but so little to her.
Hamm's character is not wistful when it comes to things, even when he helps his sister (Catherine Keener) clean out his childhood home. When she complains there are so many memories attached to the home, he curtly responds: “Make new ones.”
At this point, things take a tragic turn and the memorabilia dealer must confront his own callous views of mementos. This painful detour into grief threatens to warp the film - but stick with it.
In terms of acting, the fact that Burstyn once more offers a complex, haunted heroine is no surprise. But everyone here is excellent. Ortiz delivers a slightly magical paper-pusher, Keener is a woman broken by sadness, and Hamm is as stoic outside as he is broken inside.
Much of “Nostalgia” is shot as in a quiet dream. The camera never captures key dramatic events - that fire, for example - but rather the immediate aftereffects. It never flashes back, as you might expect in a film about memories, but instead lingers on the faces of actors as they process emotions or focuses on items that hold intense meaning.
“Nostalgia” is not a perfect film, but it is moving and sensitive. You leave with your head in the clouds and a new view of your precious stuff.
<b>Starring:</b> Jon Hamm, John Ortiz, Ellen Burstyn, Bruce Dern, Catherine Keener
<b>Directed by:</b> Mark Pellington
<b>Other:</b> A Bleecker Street release. At the Century in Evanston and Chicago's Landmark Century Centre and River East. Rated R for language. 114 minutes