I almost turned off Wild Blue Yonder (aka All at Sea) which atm is available to watch free with an Amazon Prime membership. It started out unneccessarily slapstick dark humor with very implausible scenes such as illegally appropriating a coffin complete with its deceased occupant and then placing the coffin in the back of a pickup truck and "stealing it" from a already-in-progress cemetery service. There is a need for suspension of disbelief in most movies, and the early scenes were over the top. And yet I stuck with this film mostly because of the unexpected appearance of James Fox early in the film, who happens to be an actor I like, and then also because of Lauren Bacall, and I'm SO GLAD i did stick with this movie.
Alot of the movie continues in this slapstick over the top fashion, but as I am 60 y/o myself, I was able to forgive the slapstick and categorize it as overstated metaphors whether intended or unintended, for the teriible dilemmas of getting old and losing self-determination by degrees, and the way younger people usurp the rights of the "walking-elderly" even when they are still quite lucid and capable, solely because they disapprove of a viewpoint or a conduct. I don't want to overstate that element of the film - it's pretty lighthearted fun really - but there are relevant aging themes of course that are handled quite well through this slapstick yet dramatic mechanism.
Where the movie really shines unexpectedly and very movingly, is in the intermittent and very expressive scenes between Ingrid Bolsø Berdal as "Nina" and her soulmate. Kåre Conradi as Ben. These scenes have a very "Mamma Mia" vignette-type quality to them, and these are actually little "mini-movies" of their own, as they totally independent scenes, not rich in storyline, but bursting with richness in visual imagery, the counterpoint of youth to aged, and the narrative of how some of the young come to the aid of the elderly on the terms of the elderly. This dynamic in the movie does a great job of contrasting those who would suppress the elderly with those who seem to be aware that they too will one day be elderly, and are paying it forward even as they celebrate their youth. I don't want to say too much about the exact details of this other thread about Nina and Ben except to say that it salvage and empower this movie to reclaim a measure of greatness.
The movie imho is metaphorical and allegorical, and if you watch the whole movie, you find that it achieves all of it's goals. The performances of James Fox did not disappoint he was excellent. Lauren Bacall is so talented and charming and she delivered a solid performance as well.
