Robert Duvall is a scruffy backwoods codger, object of fear and gossip in a neighboring town, who strikes a deal with smarmy undertaker Bill Murray to give himself a living funeral so he can eavesdrop on all the stories. He also needs to unburden himself of a deep, dark secret, periodically dangled before us in the form of a yellowing cameo of his former lady love. Based on the true story of Felix Breazeale, who gave himself a grand send-off in Oliver Springs, Tennessee, in 1938, this handsome period drama is the sort of quiet, homespun story that Duvall, who served as executive producer, has always loved. The creaky foreshadowing is a big problem, and the movie runs in place for most of its second half, though Duvall manages to pull it back on track with his climactic soliloquy, which sobers and silences the carnivalesque funeral party. Aaron Schneider directed; with Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, and Bill Cobbs.
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