Family/Comedy/Drama 2005

Writer/Producer/Director: Nicole Bettauer

Cast: Philip Baker Hall (The Amityville Horror, The Matador, In Good Company, Bruce Almighty, Magnolia), Bill Brochtrup (NYPD Blue), Amy Hill (Herbie: Fully Loaded, 50 First Dates, Cheaper by the Dozen, Cat in the Hat), Noel Gugliemi , French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun, Inspecter Gadget 2, Home Alone 4), Bill Cobbs (A Mighty Wind, Enough, Random Hearts, Hope Floats)

ARTHUR is a retired history professor who has outlived his time and place, friends and family, resources and reasons to live. In the park where his son and wife are buried, Arthur contemplates putting an end to his life, when he is confronted by an orphaned duckling, who has just escaped death. Arthur coins this duckling Joe. Joe follows Arthur, the only mother he knows.

When their park is landfilled and their pond is drained, Arthur and Joe engage in a Sisyphean struggle to survive, seeking a means to live, a place to live, and a purpose to live, in a world where their lives are not valued. In their search, Arthur and Joe encounter a host of strangers -- some hostile, some helpful, some harmful, some hapless, some heroic -- until, finally forming a community and a home.

If we are but six degrees of separation from one another, are we as few to being alone?

   

   

Reviews-

Variety

The always-compelling Philip Baker Hall is front and center... Bettauer's debut is an affecting road movie peopled with sharp vignettes... Pic comes across as an appropriate update of Vittorio De Sica's postwar Italian classic "Umberto D" in which a dignified older man is also driven from his home, with only his dog for company... Waddling quacker is photogenic, and Hall has the right mix of whimsy and gravitas...

Full Review-

A profoundly decent older man achieves a measure of dignity in a cruel world after he teams up with a motherless little quacker in "Duck." The always-compelling Philip Baker Hall is front and center as a widower whose fixed income no longer covers his needs and whose only friend is a duck he names Joe. Set in a not-too-distant and only slightly imaginary future in which the head of state is still named Bush, feature debut by scripter-helmer Nic Bettauer is a small, affecting road movie peopled with sharp vignettes. Good reviews could nudge this from fests into modest theatrical and home format lives.

Still robust and healthy despite his years, Arthur Pratt (Hall) exhausted his savings caring for his beloved late wife, and Social Security and pensions have been abolished in this near future. Arthur intends to kill himself but refrains in order to nurse a duckling who mistakes him for its mother.

The homeless pair sets out in search of a haven suited to both man and duck, meeting other hapless individuals along the way. Pic's conceit is so specific, it's hard to find a finale. But bittersweet mini-odyssey emphasizes that society squanders its human resources in unconscionable ways.

Set in Los Angeles in 2009, pic -- by coincidence or design -- also comes across as an appropriate update of Vittorio De Sica's postwar Italian classic "Umberto D" in which a dignified older man is also driven from his home, with only his dog for company.

Waddling quacker is photogenic, and Hall has the right mix of whimsy and gravitas as the wise, self-sufficient man with no money and all the time in the world. Amy Hill is particularly touching as a refugee who has remade her life in America, translating her own horrific experiences into compassion instead of greed.

FESTIVALS-

Audience Award Winner/ Best Narrative Feature- Cinequest 2005

Official Selection- Palm Beach International Film Festival

Official Selection- Avignon Film Festival 2005

Official Selection- American Cinematheque Independent Showcase 2005

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