That's pretty much the plot of the movie, although there is another story that is eventually revealed. The film starts off with a long shot of a man running out of and away from a fire that consumes a house. You never see the man's face, and they never show the house or the shot again, and you don't find out what went on in that house until the end of the film, but it's a vivid image that stays with you throughout. We then meet Felix Bush (Duvall), a hermit who has to deal with kids throwing rocks through his window, and who is the subject of a lot of talk in the town. When Bush goes to the local preacher (Gerald McRaney) and asks for a funeral, where people can tell stories about him and he can hear them, the preacher is understandably skeptical. Less skeptical is the struggling local undertaker, Frank Quinn (Murray), who used to sell cars in Chicago and is morally flexible.

Quinn's assistant Buddy (Lucas Black) is suspicious of Quinn's motives, but Quinn just wants to do a good job and get paid. Also, an old acquaintance of Bush's, Mattie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), has returned to town a widow, and she and Bush reconnect in spite of what seems to be a complicated history. Some of that history is revealed in the build-up to the heavily attended funeral, which is based on a true event that happened in 1938, but the whole reason for the funeral and Bush's self-imposed exile are not revealed until the event itself. There are a lot of silent shots, of people sitting around or lying around and looking pensive, but what few lines there are are gems, especially the ones that come from the lips of Duvall and Murray (also, Bill Cobbs as another preacher). Hopefully, that'll be enough for the Academy to take a look at this small, quiet movie, and the quiet characters in it.

What did you think of the movie? Let us know below, then see the roles Murray shouldn't have taken!

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