One-Liners: Loss

HEART OF A DOG (B+) - Performance artist Laurie Anderson expands on her musical talents to craft a somber yet amusing rumination on death, succeeding improbably by focusing on the demise of her beloved pup, Lolabelle.

A classic tone poem, "Heart of a Dog" is alternatively wistful and whimsical. While making this film, Anderson buried her husband, the iconic rocker Lou Reed. But Reed is glimpsed only fleetingly in this film, though he does sing the lovely "Turning Time Around" over the closing credits. Somehow, the emphasis on the pet rather than her life mate makes sense in the overall scheme.

In 75 succinct minutes, Anderson and her moving musical score, evoke dream states and fuzzy memories. She riffs on her reaction, as a New Yorker, to the 9/11 attacks -- or more accurately, the police-state aftermath. Anderson digs up some actual footage from her childhood family films, mixing it in with new images. The older footage and her scuffing up of more recent shots evoke the artifice of the feature films of Guy Maddin.

But whenever she's in danger of overly pontificating or drowning in morbid observations, she shifts tone and presents footage of her blind old dog playing the piano or creating art, providing laugh-out-loud moments. Her narration seems stilted and theatrical at first, but it eventually lulls you with its rhythm. The film eventually culminates in a touching recollection of the time when Anderson was 12 and she broke her back in a diving accident. Anderson questions the accuracy of her own selective memory of the interactions with doctors and nurses while being surrounded by other adolescents, many of whom were dying of cancer.

With that breakthrough, Anderson eventually arrives at a truth. As the trailer reveals, her foundational theme is this: The purpose of death is the release of love. And in the end, "Heart of a Dog" is less about death and loss, but rather about love and loss.

MISSISSIPPI GRIND (B) - Ben Mendelsohn is a gem, and Ryan Reynolds turns in a decent, mature performance in this old-fashioned buddy-road movie about a couple of gamblers wending their way down the Mississippi River, finding jackpots and misery at the riverboat casinos.

Gerry (Mendelsohn) and Curtis (Reynolds) meet-cute at a poker table in Dubuque, Iowa, and Curtis promises to front some money to the perpetually broke Gerry as they hit the road toward New Orleans, the site of a high-stakes poker game. Even the square-jawed, wholesome Reynolds imbues Curtis with a slackness and an aimlessness to match Mendelsohn's hang-dog Gerry.

Mendelsohn brings his patented understated intensity to the role of a man with a debilitating addiction, always chasing the big pot that would erase his debts but never knowing when to stop. With his droopy face and shaggy hair he comes off as a cross between Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man" and one of those Martin Short moppets. Reynolds sheds his rom-com baby fat (and the attitude) and manages to bring nuance to Curtis, who is playing an angle we're not quite sure of.

Curtis give Gerry something to look forward to, introducing him to some old-fashioned ladies of the night along the riverboat circuit, including Simone (a sedate Sienna Miller) and Vanessa (Annaleigh Tipton, still struggling to find her voice). But the women are not much more than window dressing.

The story is by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who broke through with "Half Nelson" in 2006 and, having graduated to directors chairs, charmed with "It's Kind of a Funny Story" in 2010. They have a deft touch with mood and dialogue, though they flirt with a few tropes, such as making Gerry a deadbeat dad to his estranged young daughter. But authenticity wins out over artifice at each crucial turn.

A few minor roles try to give some dimension to female characters. Alfre Woodard shows the old spark as Gerry's parole officer. And Robin Weigert smolders as Gerry's ex-wife, whom he pathetically hopes to win back. Singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman nails a key third-reel scene as Gerry's hard-bitten mother, performing a smoky song in a dingy roadhouse. The music throughout is rough around the edges, ranging from Americana and roots music to classic Possum Records blues and even a dash of Eric Satie.

"Mississippi Grind" is a satisfying riff in a minor key.

BONUS TRACK
Marshall Chapman with "Rainbow Road":