Len and Company

Rhys Ifans (who I always think of as the Welsh kicker from The Replacements) plays an aging former rock star turned music producer who has tried to hide himself away in his upstate New York home. First his son shows up, then one of the musicians he was working with, a troubled lady named Zoe (played by Juno Temple) shows up. There's also a local teenager who comes over to do odd jobs around the house for Len named William. William's the only one Len seems to have much patience for, maybe because Will seems content to do whatever work Len needs done without complaint, while Len is sure Max and Zoe just want stuff from him. No one's problems get solved, but everyone ends up in a slightly better place than when the film started. Well, that's debatable with Zoe.

Watching Len and Max interact is interesting, in that Max can barely make eye contact with him, and can't ever just say what he really wants to. Which informs Len's opinion of him, and probably how he responds to him. Each time Max tries to form a bridge with conversation, Len takes a contrary position. Want to watch the Liverpool match? No, fuck Liverpool. Your pool is dirty. No it isn't, it's natural. Part of that is Len trying to be contrary to drive Max away, but some of it feels like Len trying to provoke a specific reaction in Max. We learn a bit about Len's developmental years, and you wonder how much of what's happened between him and Max or Zoe is a re-creation of that, except maybe he didn't do as bad a job as his father. He's better than Ed Harris' character in Kodachrome, faint praise that is.

Maybe I just identify with Len's desire to sometimes cut yourself off from everything, to stop having to worry about maintaining appearances, and try to figure some shit out.

Most of the film takes place in Len's house, and in the early going, it's mostly shot in lighting that makes it feel cold or dim, that makes the ceiling feel low. Everyone slouches in chairs or couches like they can't sit any higher. Right at the end, it shifts and things are much brighter, and suddenly the rooms look much larger. Although when Max first goes up to his room, I expected it to be as cluttered and dingy and the downstairs had been, but it's very bright and clean. Looks untouched, which could be read a couple ways.

The cast of characters is small, so it stays focused, but it keeps things moving enough to introduce new angles on things by letting different characters play off each other. So things never get too slow.