“A lot of older people die from not moving around,” Brooke (Ellen Burstyn) tells her son Ron (Murray Bartlett) in “Place to Be,” not sharing his concern about her using a walking stick to get around the house when he insists she could die from a fall. It is among the many disagreements the two have in the wake of her husband’s death, leaving her with an empty condo in Chicago filled with valuable art that was his passion, not hers. She probably would be better off in the retirement community that Ron and his sister Molly (Pamela Anderson) would like to set her up at when there might be other residents to keep her company, but she can’t help but think that she is being put out to pasture with the kids seeking the benefits of their inheritance a little early, making it a welcome diversion when she is bothered by a pigeon she cheekily names Intruder that shows up at her door. Clearly a bit uncommon in its makeup, she eventually learns it belongs to a professional pigeon handler named Chad (David Wenham) in New Jersey and sets off to return the bird to its owner, making for an amiable road movie that proves to be a warm showcase for the ongoing radiance of Burstyn.
Although Brooke seems to not have a lot of love in her life when even her final years with her husband aren’t described as especially amorous, it is clear the filmmakers Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber have plenty for Burstyn, for whom it can be inferred that working together on “Pieces of a Woman” led to developing a proper starring vehicle for the now 92-year-old “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” actress. There ends up being a various modes of transportation in the film as Brooke crosses multiple state lines to take the pigeon home, first getting on a train where she is seated next to Nelson (Taika Waititi), a real estate broker who she witnessed at the station having a tough time with his daughter before getting onboard, and the 22-hour ride to the East Coast inevitably leads to a conversation, though he is hardly in the mood to talk about it. He also feels somewhat obliged when his soon-to-be ex-wife has cancelled his credit card, leaving Brooke to pick up the bill for his train ticket, though it’s a start of a reciprocal bond the two start to form when Brooke arrives in the Big Apple and the address she has for the pigeon owner isn’t accurate and she needs somewhere to stay.
Although there’s no attempt to tamp down Waititi’s unruly hair, he isn’t playing the wild comic foil for Burstyn that you might expect as Brooke and Nelson start to resemble the bird they’re lugging around with no obvious home now and the two have a nice, easygoing chemistry together. Mundruczó and Wéber are not shy about big metaphors or their love of animals — their first collaboration, the 2014’s breakout “White God,” involved packs of canines set loose on the streets to celebrate their constant struggle for freedom and while “Place to Be” is a little less wondrous in that regard when the flocks of pigeons that Mundruczo will turn the camera towards in the sky are a less unusual sight, the idea of two strangers left adrift by their specific set of circumstances finding a way forward together is enchanting enough being tied to the larger circle of life.
When Mundruczó and Wéber are striving for a lighter tone than they ever have before, the road can get a little bumpy at times — a chaotic visit to the pigeon operation that Chad runs is the type of scene that would more easily fit into one of the duo’s previous films on a technical level as a camera swoops around while the occasional bid for bigger laughs also doesn’t quite jive with what is predominantly an amusing and understated relationship movie, but the performances that ground the film become its saving grace as Burstyn and Waititi get something from one another that neither may not be actually able to articulate with words but communicate it clearly in other ways. (Then again, the distinctive creative flourishes that attract such strong casts to Mundruczó and Wéber’s films, such as matching stock footage of New York with what Brooke sees now as part of her memory and a tender dance scene set inside the stockroom of a club where far louder music is playing, are interlaced thrhoughout.) As Brooke becomes reluctant to part with the bird that led her on an unexpected adventure, “Place to Be” can inspire similar feelings when it remains lively throughout and settling in too much can appear as reckless as always being on the move.
“Place to Be” will screen again at the Venice Film Festival on September 10th at 9 am at Astra 1.