I saw the trailer of this movie on youtube a weeks ago and I got interested in checking out the film which I did finally last nite. It was 130 mins well spent.
Best Man Down is an unlikely tale when the Best Man of Scott & Kristin's (played by Long and Weixler) marriage, Lumpy (Labine) dies just after the reception has ended. Lumpy has not many friends and the newly wed couple are now arranging the funeral in Minnesota instead on going on their honeymoon. During all this, they find out of that Lumpy had another one friend called Ramsey (Timlin) in Minnesota who turns out to be a 15 yr old girl studying in high school.
Who is Ramsey? How does she know Lumpy? What was her relationship with Lumpy? And lots of other questions bothers the newly wed couple and especially Scott who wonders did he really know Lumpy whom he met in high school.
Best Man Down works because of its unusual story and simplistic screenplay. Its a slow film and one needs a bit of patience in the beginning. But it grows over you as it progresses and the reason being the writers make Lumpy and Ramsey's relationship a suspense.
Even in the scenes where the couple fight or Ramsey fights with her mother, the writers and directors keep the tone low and it never goes over the top.
The casting is perfect. Long and Weixler are perfect as the newly wed couple who are trying to make their marriage work after Lumpy's death. Labine is effective in his short role as Lumpy and special mention to Shelly Long who plays Kristin's mother. Her character gets the smile on our faces in this serious film with her out of place dialogues.
However, the star of the this film is Timlin. I have seen Timlin in Californication before and I was not sure what kind of actress she is . After watching this film, I can easily say that she is a fine actress in the making. Timlin is in her early 20s but portrays the 15 yr old Ramsey with ease. Her character longs to be loved and cared and you feel for her. The scene where she comes to know about Lumpy's death is brilliant. She initially doesn't react much to the surprise of the couple but when alone, she breaks down.
I hope she gets better films to do in the future because there is talent in her to be explored.
I wonder how this film was missed by the awards in US. This is under rated romance classic because there is no physical love...just unspoken love between two people. This film deserved a couple of nominations of its screenplay.
