A Love Song puts two unlikely actors in a quiet drama about reaching out and being vulnerable when life has brought you slightly damaged into your third act. Dale Dickey and Wes Studi star in this unusual film about memories, friendships, and kindness.
Faye (Dale Dickey) spends her days in near silence beside a Colorado lake with a distant peak in the background. She catches crawdads, brews coffee, and listens to a radio that always plays the song needed at the moment.
She has a small travel trailer and a pickup to pull it. She identifies the bird songs and the constellations. But she’s clearly waiting for something. Each approaching person or vehicle makes her nervously check her clothing, her hair, her smile.
Not much happens. A mail carrier on horseback visits. Two lesbians from a nearby campsite ask her to dinner. A gaggle of cowboys ask her to move her trailer so they can dig up their father and move him to a prettier spot. She politely asks them to wait because she’s meeting someone at this spot.
On the day she gives up waiting, she loans the engine in her truck to the cowboys. She’ll be stuck there until they return it. This family with their ever present shovels bring a smile to the film – even at a lonely campsite people are funny and kind.
And finally, Lito (Wes Studi) arrives. He’s nervous, too. He brings flowers and his big black dog. They talk in fits and starts. They sing. They grew up in the same town, went to the same school. They each married other people but are now left alone and lonely.
Can they connect? Can they be an answer to the loneliness? They try to figure it out.
There’s a lot of empty space around the few moments of change and momentum in A Love Song. I thought it was bold and beautiful to create a soft and touching film like this with Dale Dickey in the lead. She was wonderful and perfect. Wes Studi was, too. I’ve seen Dale Dickey’s weathered face in dozens of films, but never as the lead character. Her character was admirable and resilient. I love seeing actors who don’t fit the Hollywood norm of beautiful or handsome get to play romantic lead roles.
Max Walker-Silverman directed the film. It was full of gorgeous shots and very scenic. A love song to the Colorado high country.
This film definitely isn’t for everyone. But if it sounds like a good choice for you it’s streaming on Hulu or can be rented on Prime Video.
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