Blythe Danner is in every single scene in I’ll See You In My Dreams, and yet somehow this still feels like too little. Theatergoers have known for decades that Ms. Danner is a triple threat who can dance, sing and act, by age 25 she had won a Tony for Best Featured Actress and in 2014 she was headlining The Country House on Broadway. The movies however have been missing out on her magic, she’s played supporting roles in films like Meet the Parents and Sylvia, but she’s never had a leading role as prominent as this one. And it’s about time too, her expressive eyes and bright personality should bring a sense of freshness to the screen the likes of which audiences ought to welcome and applaud.
In I’ll See You In My Dreams, Danner plays Carol Petersen a retired schoolteacher who seems to have lost her sense of purpose. When the film begins we see her having to put her dog down, we learn that she has had it for 14 years and by the time she gets back its ashes, it only makes sense to place the urn on the mantel next to her husband’s ashes. More than leading a life, Carol seems to have become an unwilling contestant in a game of survival, but is she really a winner when she outlives everyone who means something to her?
Her group of friends (played by Rhea Perlman, June Squibb and Mary Kay Place) urge her to either move into their retirement home or start dating again. She decides to give the latter a try and endures a pathetic night of speed dating where she sits across the table from gentlemen who confess having STDs or just plain bore her. She ends up making two unexpected connections, the first with Lloyd (Martin Starr), her pool cleaner who turns out to be a sensitive, wannabe poet with a penchant for karaoke singing. She also meets Bill (Sam Elliott) a suave bachelor who hits on her in the vitamin aisle and eventually takes her on a date in his boat.
While almost every relationship in the film seems to be inspired by an indie film cliché or a latter-days-Diane-Keaton-star-vehicle, the cast is so splendid that they are able to elevate the material and often find the humanity within the silly tropes. A scene in which the four ladies smoke pot and get the munchies could have played out like a cringe-worthy parody of bro movies, but instead they reveal a lifelong camaraderie with just a few looks and smiles, similarly scenes between Carol and Lloyd, shine because both actors know better than to act out the “awkwardness” of the situation and just play these two like people craving a connection.
Scenes between Carol and Bill are endearing and tremendously sexy, Elliott’s larger than life masculinity and I-know-what-you-look-like-naked grins often downplayed by Danner’s unassuming sensuality. After all, it’s her performance that works out the like the sun at the center of this system, and it seems that writer/director Brett Haley took note of the effortless magic his camera was capturing, because his direction never intrudes with the actors.
Even though Danner gets to deliver delicious lines, the actress never shines more than when she’s silently reacting to others. Two scenes in particular come to mind, the first a devastatingly beautiful moment where Carol sings “Cry Me a River” at a karaoke bar, her shy smiles eventually giving way to a confidence that can only come from wisdom. As beautiful as her singing is, she is exceptional in the silences between words, where Carol seems to be drawing inspiration from a rich life. The other scene, unsurprisingly another musical moment is when Carol listens to Lloyd sing a song for her. The camera fixates not on him but on her reactions, and we see her eyes and heart fill with light, even as the world around her seems to crumble. If there are moments in screen acting where you can see epiphanies manifesting, this is one of them, and boy do we feel thankful for the gift of Danner in this film.
