Take The City And Run

Directed by Robert Altman

Garrison Keillor: Every show is your last show. That’s my philosophy.

Enjoyable, but it’s hard to tell if it will prove to be as significant as past Altman films. Altman likes to be somewhat enigmatic even when his message is pretty clear. Like so many of his films, this one has something to say, but just as it gets close to saying it outright, it doesn’t — almost like if it has to be stated completely, it’s not worth saying. Here the message concerns itself with the misfortune of losing “quaintness” to modernity. But that’s too simplistic a summary. This doesn’t seem to be an argument for yesteryear so much as a ponderance on whether old and new can coexist. In the end, even Altman and company seem unsure. It’s interesting that the greatest hope for coexistence of the perahps-antiquated and modern seems to lie in a character played by Lindsay Lohan, a modern pop phenomenon herself. Her character briefly seems to be comfortable with both, but, in the end, even she appears unable to reconcile old and new. This isn’t a film that preaches to you — it just asks the question and lets you answer for yourself, which is a nice break from the numerous political messages in films these days.

[IMDb]