NOSTALGIA – Review

Jon Hamm stars as Will in NOSTALGIA, a Bleecker Street release.
Credit: Bleecker Street

Nostalgia is a word that evokes a warm feeling of sentiment and sentimentality, something linked to pleasant memories of the past. Little of that warm feeling is found in the dark drama NOSTALGIA, an exploration of loss and complicated feelings about family and family possessions. “Loss” or “sadness” might have been a more accurate title.

“One man’s treasure is another man’s trash” seems to a central message of this sometimes moving, sometimes disturbing drama. Despite the title, there is little that is sweet or sentimental in NOSTALGIA. While some of the characters are briefly nostalgic, that is not the overall tone.

NOSTALGIA weaves together a series of stories about loss, grief, greed and, yes, even a little nostalgia. The losses range from the aftermath of a house fire that destroyed the possessions of a lifetime, the sudden death of a family member, and the daunting task of sorting through parents’ possessions left behind after downsizing.

The film is directed by Mark Pellington with a script by Alex Ross Perry from a story Pellington and Perry co-wrote. Pellington became interested in the subject after reading an article in the New York Times about the psychological value of nostalgia and also following the deaths of his mother and wife.

There is much that most people will recognize in this tale of family and keepsakes. Structured as a series of loosely connected tales, NOSTALGIA follows several people in a daisy-chain of personal stories that all involve objects tied to family memories. That chain starts with insurance adjuster Daniel (John Ortiz) visiting a grizzled, grumpy retired widower man, Ronald (Bruce Dern), who is being forced out of the apartment he has lived in for decades by pending re-development. The move means Ronald faces the unwelcome task of dealing with his floor-to-ceiling accumulation of possessions, from old books and historic artifacts to old magazines and random ephemera of life. He also must face his stressed and pregnant granddaughter Bethany (Amber Tambyn) who wants the random collection of artifacts appraised first but seems to have no sentimental attachment to the collection.

The film moves on to a widow, Helen (Ellen Burstyn), who just lost her home to fire, and her relationship and misunderstandings with grown son Henry (Nick Offerman). Henry wants to send her off to assisted living but the still independent Helen is not ready for that. The story then veers off to follow a collectibles dealer, Will (Jon Hamm), who travels to his boyhood home to help his sister Donna (Catherine Keener) sort through the contents of their parents’ mansion, so it can be sold now that the parents have moved to Florida.

That is an impressive cast for this drama about loss and the things people leave behind. Family and their accumulated possessions are where these tales intersect, with loss and grief as running themes throughout as well. The people featured represent a range of ages and generations, and to some extent, financial circumstances. The film focuses on family connections and memories even though the plot is built around objects.

The objects range from a treasured memento handed down to a houseful of “stuff” that elderly parents leave behind to be dealt with by their children. Questions are raised such as who owns family heirlooms, the person who has it now or the family itself? Many a grown child has had the experience of going through a grandparent’s or other older relative’s accumulation of a lifetime. Treasures and memories for that person become mysteries or even junk to someone else.

Occasionally, the “junk” is valuable, and that is where the opportunists come in – appraisers, buyers of collectibles, re-sellers and even family members, either hoping to profit in the sell-off or feeling entitled to inherit the valuables. One of the things that is so striking is how often the grown children in this film are unsentimental about their parents’ things, even where they touch their own childhoods – or at least until they actually see and handle those artifacts.

Each cast member builds a vignette of a complicated person and often his or her relationship to both family and objects with sentimental meaning for their families. Ortiz’s insurance appraiser represents the view of an outsider, coolly valuing those objects but also acting as a kind of anthropologist observing the families and individuals facing the loss. Burstyn touches our hearts as Helen, working through her feelings of grief at losing her longtime home and nearly all the physical reminders of her beloved late husband. Offerman’s Henry means to be a supportive son but he does not see the few family heirlooms his mother was able to rescued in the same way Helen does, nor does he understand her feelings about her lost home. The film perhaps spends the greatest amount of time with Hamm’s Will. In traveling to a boyhood home about which he feels unsentimental, Will goes on a journey of reassessment, moving from a detached professionalism to a warmer feeling of family as he sorts through his parents’ stuff. Keener’s Donna is the most sentimental, even nostalgic, of the characters but her life is spun around in a new direction following a sudden family tragedy.

The bittersweet NOSTALGIA is languid, serious-minded movie whose strengths are its thoughtful reflection on the meaning of objects left behind, whether those be photographs or valuables, and the work of its excellent cast. Director Mark Pellington clearly is less concerned if the audience is comfortable with the issues he raises than presenting a contemplative, even poetic space for the characters explore their complicated feelings about family possessions. The objects sometimes represent a sentimental connection to a loved one or fond memories of one’s own childhood, and sometimes a burden, something one is obligated to keep. The film works through these feelings from various characters’ perspectives. The caliber of the actors helps ensue that there are no false sentiments or contrived confrontations. Everything is in shades of gray.

NOSTALGIA isn’t a particularly pleasant film to watch, and will leave some audience members cold and others clutching tissues, but it does stir thought on a universal theme. At times touching and at others unsettling, the drama provokes reflection, even on one’s own morality and the “stuff” one will leave behind for others to either treasure or trash.

NOSTALGIA opens in St. Louis on Friday, February 23, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

RATING: 3 out of 5 stars