Film Review: ‘A Love Song’: Hopeful Romance in the Autumn Years

PG | 1h 21min | Drama, Romance | 29 July 2022 (USA)

A more-than-suitable bookend to this week’s “Icon,” first-time director (also writer and co-producer) Max Walker-Silverman’s  spare, delicate, and soulful “A Love Song” examines budding romance from a vastly different age spectrum and set of circumstances.

Faye (Dale Dickey, “Winter’s Bone,” “Hell or High Water”) lives in a single-wide motor home on the shores of a dying Colorado lake. Her daily routine consists of dining on freshly harvested mammoth crawfish, black coffee, and warm Busch beer, while studying the night sky and identifying bird whistles.

Dale Dickey as Faye in “A Love Song.” (Bleecker Street)

She has two neighbors she barely knows. But she does receive daily visits from USPS employee “Postman Sam” (John Way), whose parcels, packages, and letters are carried on the back of a donkey.

A Nod to the Coen Brothers

She’s also dropped in on regularly by four men and a preteen girl named Dice (Marty Grace Dennis), all wearing cowboy hats and carrying shovels. The deadpan and exceedingly polite Dice is the only one of them with audible dialogue, and exactly why they’re there should be kept secret. The men’s silent presence and Dice’s off-kilter lines would be completely at home in any Coen brothers’ movie, particularly “Raising Arizona” or “No Country for Old Men.”

Dale Dickey as Faye meets her neighbors in “A Love Song.” (Bleecker Street)

Although it is eventually revealed that Faye was raised in the area she now inhabits, we also get the impression that she hasn’t been there in close to a decade. Unlike her neighbors who have “planted roots” so to speak, Faye can pick up and leave in mere minutes.

This location, it would appear, was chosen because it is both familiar to her and in close proximity to Lito (Wes Studi, “Dances With Wolves,” “Avatar”), a Native American man she’s known since childhood but hasn’t seen in over 40 years.

Based on what takes place in the first act, it appears that both Lito and Faye are old-school types who didn’t reconnect online or through social media, but rather by old-fashioned snail mail, hence her visible delight every time Postman Sam shows up. The letter sent by Lito letting Faye know that he’s on his way doesn’t arrive until after he actually knocks on her door.

A Gentleman Caller

Reaching his destination with a freshly picked bouquet of wildflowers, a disarming smile, a gravelly lilt, and his loyal dog Huck, Lito is the embodiment of weathered jeans and a pair of long-broken-in boots. It’s clear that he is both excited and wary, as Faye and their first shared moments are understandably awkward and tentative but never suspicious or leery.

Each is unsure of what the other, or they themselves for that matter, wants or expects. The ice is eventually broken when each recalls a moment shared between them during a 10th grade field trip that took place at the very spot where they now stand.

He’s sure she tried to kiss him, and she thinks it happened the other way around. At last the air is let out of the balloon. In a brilliantly conceived scene, Walker-Silverman illustrates, through body language, the pair’s newfound comfort level by showing just their legs and feet while they dine.

Besides their shared upbringing and obvious attraction to one another, Lito and Faye are both widowed and low-maintenance types who play guitar and share a fondness for country and Americana music. Singing is not one of their strong suits.

Wes Studi as Lito and Dale Dickey as Faye in “A Love Song.” (Bleecker Street)

Music Is Another Character

In addition to the duet that Faye and Lito perform, the accompanying score and source music become de facto characters in the movie, but not in a manner you might expect. There are a dozen instances where Faye powers up her arcane transistor radio and randomly twirls the rotary tuner until it finds a strong signal. In each instance, the song being played is slow, deliberate and melancholic, but never depressing.

As the sun begins to set on their day, Faye and Lito’s tentativeness makes a slight return with both of them exhibiting the kind of decorum, manners, and morality practiced by most of us in decades past. As with a similar event depicted in “Icon,” Walker-Silverman demurs and allows the audience to make their own conclusions and judgments over what transpires.

Wes Studi as Lito in “A Love Song.” (Bleecker Street)

Unfortunately, dear reader, what takes place in the last 20 minutes of the movie cannot be revealed or even hinted at here, as any mention of plot detail—overt or otherwise—will thoroughly spoil things for any and all interested viewers. Walker-Silverman waits until the very last shot in the film before we ultimately find out what’s in store for the two leads.

Hope for the Future

It is refreshing to see that Walker-Silverman, a man in his mid-30s, is so attuned to and in touch with the timeless universality of the human condition and affairs of the heart. People in the autumn of their years still yearn for romance and companionship and, for at least some of them, they never throw in the towel; they never say die, even when every signal tells them to do otherwise.

While the first half of Walker-Silverman’s film is metaphorically half empty, the second is more than full, so much so that it overflows with optimism, unbridled joy, and a coda guaranteed to make your spirit soar.

Promotional ad for "A Love Song." (Bleecker Street)

‘A Love Song’ Director: Max Walker-Silverman Stars: Dale Dickey, Wes Studi, Marty Grace Dennis, John Way Running Time: 1 hour, 21 minutes MPAA Rating: PG Release Date: July 29, 2022 Rating: 4 out of 5