Ellen Burstyn is 93, an Oscar winner, and still the main reason to see almost anything she’s in. Her new movie, Place to Be, also stars Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson, and a pigeon. It sounds like a risk. The Hollywood Reporter’s review says the result is strange, sentimental, and occasionally endearing.
Kornél Mundruczó directs this road movie, the Hungarian filmmaker known for Pieces of a Woman and White God. Brooke, a solitary widow, discovers a racing pigeon in her living room and resolves to journey from Chicago to New York to bring it back. She encounters Nelson, a divorced real estate agent desperate to sell a luxury apartment in Tribeca, played by Waititi.
Burstyn carries a far-fetched plot
Burstyn’s skill is what keeps the premise from seeming ridiculous, according to the review. Even when the story veers into maudlin territory, she manages a memorable performance.
Burstyn won her Academy Award more than half a century ago for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, directed by Martin Scorsese. She was still present on the Lido for the premiere of this film. She also starred in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s short film Flesh Impact, played Marilyn Monroe, gave a masterclass, and received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
The script comes from Kata Weber, Mundruczó’s wife and regular collaborator. Burstyn and Waititi share decent chemistry, even if Waititi’s attempts at comedy are slightly overcooked. One memorable scene has Burstyn describing how turned off she was by the free love movement of the 1960s, in a seemingly improvised monologue that shows she can still be funny and genuine.
A pigeon named Intruder
The bird gets named Intruder. It functions more as a MacGuffin to keep the plot moving than as a meaningful symbol, though there’s a faint suggestion early on that it represents Brooke’s deceased husband, a famous painter and not necessarily the best father to her kids.
David Wenham and Pamela Anderson play Brooke’s children. Anderson is almost beyond recognition under a late-period Mia Farrow disguise. The pair move the bird about town, stopping at a rooftop coop in Bushwick operated by Lena Waithe before heading out to Jersey for a pigeon race involving big sums of money.
Mundruczó already showed his talent for shooting epic animal scenes in his 2014 Cannes prizewinner White God. Here he takes several flights of fancy with his cast of birds, using a tad too much CGI to give those sequences a magical realist edge.
A romance nobody wants
The final part leans toward embarrassment. Shot in Australia while set on the Jersey Shore, there’s a real risk of a full romance developing between Brooke and Nelson that nobody wants to watch. Instead, the film stays true to its central bond: a three-way friendship — with the pigeon serving as the third member — centered around three lonely people searching for connection in strange places.
Without its standout lead, this concept would likely sink under its own sentimentality. Burstyn brings Actors Studio-style realism to a role where her age and years of experience work in her favor. She makes Brooke’s situation feel truly affecting in places.
The movie stepped away from competition in Venice. The review implies it is likely headed for streaming.
Credits and details
- Director: Kornél Mundruczó
- Screenwriter: Kata Weber
- Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson, David Wenham, Lena Waithe, Murray Bartlett
- Production companies: Mirador Pictures, Wynn Media Production
- Sales: CAA (US Domestic)
The review describes the movie as a sentimental friendship dramedy, something like Trains, Planes and Automobiles meets Harold and Maude. It’s an offbeat gro-mance, if that’s what you call a buddy movie between a grandma and a middle-aged bro.
She’s still the main attraction. Over fifty years on from her Oscar triumph, Burstyn hasn’t stopped performing.
Source: hollywoodreporter.com
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