Dipping Into: Hello I Must Be Going

The title of the movie, Hello I Must Be Going is a song from an old Groucho Marx film which gets referenced in this film; but it’s also odd enough to sound like something Rose would say on Two and Half Men, the most recognized role for lead actress Melanie Lynskey.

Surprisingly, Lynskey is not just the TV character actress we’ve all seen from time to time, even if you didn’t know her name. In actuality, Lynskey has been making films since the age of 16. The first movie I took note of her was the 2011 film Win Win starring Paul Giamatti. 
9/20/2012
And if her Sundance 2012 Opening Film (Hello I Must Be Going) continues to make waves, it could very well mean an Oscar nod for Melanie Lynskey, who plays Amy, a woman who moves back in with her wealthy parents (Blythe Danner and John Rubinstein) after her husband leaves her for her best friend. Then finds herself having an affair with a 19 year-old actor (Christopher Abbott), whose mother thinks he’s gay and who’s stepfather holds the keys to her own father’s dreams of retirement.

Regardless of what you may think of the plot, the execution is spot on. Kooky, honest, endearing and funny.

There’s a scene in which Amy, tired of her mother’s harping over her wearing the same t-shirt since moving back home, decides to walk to the nearest shopping center, which by the looks of their gated, mid-size mansion, would be a far trek.  She enters the store dripping in sweat, grabs the first shirt she sees and just slops it on over her old one.  By the time she gets home she collapses in the driveway. While laying on the couch recuperating she overhears her mother say to her father.  What’s going to become of her? She’s uneducated – disparaging Amy’s Liberal Arts degree and a “phoney” Masters. 

The film reminds me a lot of another little, Indie movie called Tiny Furniture, where similarly an average looking, un-thin young woman moves back home after college to live with her successful mother and try to find herself.

Both movies explore the theme of that famous quote: Life is what happens to you while you‘re busy making other plans. Or perhaps it should be while you’re too depressed to make other plans,  Or as Amy’s father gives as his only words of advice – “What can you do?”

Interview excerpt from www.APC.FR by Emma Brown

BROWN: A lot of these first reviews of Hello have focused
on your performance and how it is sort of your “breakout”
role. Do you feel like things are going to change for you?

LYNSKEY:
To be totally honest, I’ve been doing this for so long that I’ve
learned to never have expectations anymore. I don’t mean to sound
cynical, I’m just grateful for the experience and I’m happy that
people like the movie- READ MORE

Hello I Must Be Going opens in Philadelphia Friday, September 21, 2012. 

Preview screening was courtesy of The Philadelphia Film Society. Mark your calendars for the 21st Philadelphia Film Festival October 18-28th

Philly Film Blog