Monterey Media Thinks that Nik Fackler’s Debut is ‘Lovely, Still’

If they book theaters with a certain demo in mind, then the small in stature indie distribution company Monterey Media could have a hit on their hands. THR have announced what appears to be an already done deal, Nik Fackler’s Lovely, Still has been picked up and will receive a theatrical release in the crazy, high traffic month for indie titles of September. I caught Lovely, Still two Toronto Film Festival editions ago, and my first impression was this could play well for cinephiles who are old enough to have tracked the careers of Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn from their beginnings. I’m not saying that the romantic dramedy is limited to one audience – there are stylistic flourishes (that actually serve a purpose to the film’s denouement) and could actually be a good calling card for the young helmer – but if I’m Monterey Media, I’m booking four walls that play to a specific aud in mind. Elizabeth Banks and Adam Scott also grab a good amount of screen time in this indie. Here is the complete synopsis below.

Robert Malone (Martin Landau) is an elderly perennial bachelor who leads a tidy, uneventful and some might even say empty life. This Christmas, for whatever reason, Robert is feeling the lack of family more keenly than usual. Then one day, like a single man’s dream, Robert comes home from his job at a grocery store to find a beautiful woman in his house. Her name is Mary (Ellen Burstyn), and while Robert is initially shocked and angry, she quickly explains that she has just moved in across the street, saw his door open, and was concerned for the welfare of the homeowner. Their flap settled, Mary is on her way out when she turns to Robert and pertly asks him out to dinner. A little nonplussed, Robert agrees, and thus begins a late-life courtship that leaves the bachelor in a constant state of wonderment and surprise. He eventually must admit that he is falling in love.

But there’s something about Mary that seems not right. She’s overeager, almost pushy, in the way she engages Robert almost every hour; within days, they are like teenagers, conjoined in first love. Robert is besotted, but soon becomes unnerved by the intensity of his love. He grows paranoid, jealous and erratic, all from fear of losing her. At this point, the narrative takes an extraordinary turn, with a development in the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock or the novelist Daphne du Maurier. This tectonic shift in perspective leads to a powerful, tremendously moving conclusion, made all the richer by a heightened understanding of what has come before.