I understand why this film may have limited appeal. It's slow and not a whole lot actually happens. Many people felt the same way about Banshees of Inisherin, another film I loved. And that's a shame because A Love Song tells a poignant story that sticks with one and features a brilliant performance by Dale Dickey, a prolific character actress starring in her first leading role, a role she inhabits without ego and, apparently, makeup.
We meet Faye outside her trailer at a desolate and barren campground somewhere out west. The first shot of her is a closeup of her face and we see she's as weathered as her old trailer and surroundings. I couldn't help but think of the opening lyrics from Brandi Carlile's The Story, "All of these lines across my face ...". Faye's daily routine consists largely of trapping crawdads in the nearby river and eating them for dinner (and maybe lunch and breakfast) and waiting for the daily visit by the rural mail carrier and his mail laden mule. We later learn she is waiting for a letter from an expected visitor and the mail carrier seems as invested in her hopes as she is.
Her routine is broken by a bizarre but satisfying visit from a group of cowboys and their wise-beyond-her-years young spokesgirl. We never really learn why the cowboys are mostly mute. They've come to dig up the body of their "pop pops" because his view has been ruined by a nearby oil derrick since erected. Problem is he is buried under Faye's camper and she explains her anticipated visitor has been told to find her at that site and she dare not move. No worries, the girl explains, they'll come back. That's a scene that would be more at home in a Coen Brothers or Wes Anderson movie but, for reasons I can't fully understand, it seems perfectly at ease with the rest of the film. (We also learn it's apparently quite easy to transfer an engine from one truck to another and back again with no winch and few tools.)
She is invited to dinner by some fellow campers, a lesbian couple struggling with commitment issues. The scene gives us the opportunity to learn a little bit of Faye's back story.
Finally her long awaited visitor arrives. We learn that Lito, well played by Wes Studi, like Faye, lost his spouse some years ago. Turns out they once had something of a relationship and this reunion seems meant to determine whether their likely final chapters in life will be spent alone or together. To say more would be a spoiler.
Comparisons to Nomadland are understandable and inevitable. There are certainly similarities but this one is content to focus on Faye and her story and mostly skip the larger social commentary. As a result and contrary to what one might expect, A Love Song is the more powerful film.
I wish more people would see it because it deserves a much wider audience. And, while it has been nominated for and won some more obscure awards, the Oscar's failure to recognize Dickey's performance is a real shame.
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