The Roads Not Taken (2020)

The Roads Not Taken: Directed by Sally Potter. With Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Branka Katic, Salma Hayek. A day in the life of Leo and his daughter, Molly, as he floats through alternate lives he could have lived, leading Molly to wrestle with her own path as she considers her future.

“How do I love it? Let me count the ways…First, like a few perfect jazz albums, OUT OF THE PAST has a distinctive, coherent sound developed through various moods and tempos and melodies. Robert Mitchum is the lead soloist who dominates the score; the sound of the film is his sound, cool and weary and knowing. Though he doesnu0026#39;t sing in this one, no performance better demonstrates Mitchumu0026#39;s musicality, his sense of rhythm, pace and inflection. He referred to his dialogue as u0026quot;the lyrics,u0026quot; and treated it that way, delivering his lines behind the beat, the way Sinatra sings. Jane Greer contributes her gorgeous dry contralto and Kirk Douglas adds a light, sneering counterpoint to an inspired group improvisation on the theme of disillusionment.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMitchum is Jeff Markham, alias Jeff Bailey, an ex-private eye who made a big mistake by falling for Kathie (Jane Greer), the gangsteru0026#39;s mistress he was hired to track down. Splitting up after he discovers sheu0026#39;s a liar and a killer, he hides out in a small town, taking up with a nice girl named Ann, knowing itu0026#39;s just a matter of time before the past catches up with him. His narration and dialogue carry the film along on a laid-back high, like a series of perfect smoke rings. He sums up his philosophy of life in a casino when Kathie asks, u0026quot;Is there a way to win?u0026quot; and he answers, u0026quot;Thereu0026#39;s a way to lose more slowly.u0026quot; When she says sheu0026#39;s sorry the man she shot didnu0026#39;t die, he murmurs dreamily, u0026quot;Give him time.u0026quot; His enveloping pessimism is strangely elated; Jeff knows the score and savors it like some private hipster knowledge. u0026quot;She canu0026#39;t be all bad. No one is,u0026quot; Jeffu0026#39;s nice girlfriend says of Kathie, but he returns, u0026quot;She comes closest.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eKathie Moffat is the greatest of all femmes fatales, because sheu0026#39;s the least caricatured. Sheu0026#39;s not a scheming black widow, just a totally selfish, cowardly woman who feels no remorse for anything she does, and who happens to be beautiful and alluring enough that we can believe any man, even a smart and tough one, would fall for her. Jeff and Kathieu0026#39;s romance is genuinely rhapsodic, nothing like the usual mating of temptress and chump; theyu0026#39;re both so sexy and smart and wised-up, always getting the joke together. The disillusionment wouldnu0026#39;t be so compelling if the illusion werenu0026#39;t so lovely. When Kathie shoots Jeffu0026#39;s partner, Mitchum—in a reaction shot lasting all of two seconds—shows Jeff realizing, and instantaneously coming to terms with, the fact that the best thing that ever happened to him is also the worst thing that ever happened to him. He looks simultaneously shocked to the core, and as though heu0026#39;d expected it all along.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJeff Bailey is a paradox: youu0026#39;d think nobody could put anything over on this guy, yet he acts like a sucker; he exemplifies both cynical pride and romantic blindness. Does he know what heu0026#39;s getting into and deliberately delude himself? Is he drawn to Kathie because she can rouse him from his torpor of indifference, because he can only really care about his life when heu0026#39;s in danger of losing it? Youu0026#39;re never sure, but Mitchum knows how to hold your interest without explaining himself. His essential u0026quot;Mitchumnessu0026quot; lies in hidden depths, those hints of melancholy, amusement and cold violence that seep through his impassive surface, the suggestions of menace and compassion and old wounds. He gives the movie a core of mystery thatu0026#39;s eternally captivating. Like great American popular music, itu0026#39;s sublime hokum, so well-crafted that it stays eternally fresh and means more to you the more you hear it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHere is a world in which every throwaway gesture—ordering a cup of coffee, checking a briefcase—has drop-dead style, every word spoken is a wisecrack or a line of pulp poetry. Even minor characters and incidental scenes are rich and unforgettable: Theresa Harris as Eunice the maid in her fabulous Billie Holiday hat in the Harlem nightclub; the check-room clerk at the bus station, witness to who knows how many noir entanglements, with his hollow-man motto: u0026quot;I always say everyoneu0026#39;s rightu0026quot;; Joe Stefanosu0026#39;s black overcoat appearing like an ink-spot in the clean white town; the signs the mute Kid flashes to Jeff by the glittering lake, as the sky clouds over…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie floats from place to place, blending real landscapes and studio sets, expressionistic stairwells and Ansel Adams mountains. The episodes run together fluid and compulsive as a dream. Sometimes thereu0026#39;s nothing but music and movement: Jeff prowling cat-like around Meta Carsonu0026#39;s apartment while boogie-woogie piano plays in the next room. The cinematography is distractingly gorgeous, drifting into glistening abstract patterns of black and white, like the web of bare tree-branches projected onto the bodies of Jeff and Ann at their last meeting. A seamless blend of romance and cynicism, drama and humor, OUT OF THE PAST is not only a perfect Hollywood studio product, itu0026#39;s a definitive movie experience. Itu0026#39;s supersaturated, yet it never feels overworked, never tries too hard. It just seems to happen, almost by casual serendipity; the wit and elegance and glamour are so unforced and alive. You succumb to it instantly and helplessly as Jeff succumbs to Kathieu0026#39;s magic. The spell breaks for him, but not for us. Disenchantment may be the theme of OUT OF THE PAST, but the movie itself is a source of perennial wonder.”