THE WASHINGTON POST.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019EZ22
Movies
Don’t Let Go
A thriller that works — as long as you don’t think too hard about it
BY MICHAEL O'SULLIVANLetting go of the past and
moving on is healthy but hard.
“God grant me the serenity to
accept the things I cannot
change,” the old prayer goes, “the
courage to change the things I
can, and the wisdom to know the
difference.” Our very human de-
sire for do-overs has fueled the
fantasy underlying countless
time-travel movies, including
variants like the 2000 film “Fre-
quency” and the 2016 CW series
inspired by it. (They’re not time
travel stories, per se, but they
involve people in the present
who can communicate with dead
people in the past, sticking their
fingers where they don’t belong:
in the flowing waters of the
time-space continuum.)
“Don’t Let Go” is pretty much
exactly that scenario, replacing
the magic shortwave radio of
“Frequency” with a magic mobile
phone. Talk about your do-overs:
As with those earlier entertain-
ments, a character in the new
movie suddenly finds himselfable to connect with a loved one
whose death may be preventable.
At least with “Frequency,” the
glitch was attributed to the auro-
ra borealis; here, it seems to be
some kind of unlimited family
data plan that your cellular carri-
er does not offer.
As unoriginal as the premise
might be, the movie works well
enough, thanks mainly to its two
stars: David Oyelowo, portray-
ing an LAPD detective named
Jack, and Storm Reid as his
teenage niece Ashley, who was
murdered two weeks earlier.
Their connection and chemistry
— which play out over the course
of the film in cellphone conver-
sations wherein Jack tries to
prevent her death — are critical
to the success of the far-fetched
story, as it always is with such
things. Sure, it’s a sci-fi-tinged
mystery thriller, but it’s also, at
heart, a tale of two people. If we
don’t care about them, the whole
thing falls apart.
Fortunately, we do. Reid (of “A
Wrinkle in Time”) and Oyelowo
SEE LET GO ON 23LACEY TERRELL/UNIVERSAL PICTURES/OTL RELEASING
Without actors as likable as David Oyelowo, left, and Storm Reid a movie like “Don’t Let Go” would
fall apart. Their connection and chemistry are critical to the success of the far-fetched story.Love Antosha
Resistance is futile to charming doc about late Star Tr ek actor
BY PAT PADUAAnton Yelchin, the prolific ac-
tor best known for playing Pavel
Chekov in the rebooted Star Trek
movies, died in 2016 when, in a
freak accident, his unattended
SUV rolled backward down his
own driveway, pinning him
against a brick and iron gate. He
was 27. A new documentary
about him, “Love, Antosha,” is
less a somber memorial than a
celebration of a life lived fully, if
all too briefly.
Director Garret Price, making
his feature debut, uses home
movies to show a boy who found
his calling at an early age. Videos
of Yelchin reveal a precocious
child acting out an adventure
called “The Phantom” i n his jam-
mies. You can see the intensity,
the exuberance and the endear-
ing hamminess that would serve
the actor well through his career.
Born in Russia, Yelchin seems
to have inherited his dramatic
flair from his parents, Irina and
Viktor Yelchin, who were figure
skaters in the Leningrad Ice Bal-
let. After fleeing political oppres-
sion, the family settled in Los
Angeles in 1989. It w as the perfect
place to foster their son’s love ofmovies.
That love started by watching
such fare as “The Last Action
Hero” and “Space Jam.” But when
he was 11 or 12, Yelchin’s parents
gave him his first taste of more
challenging stories in “Taxi Driv-er.” If Martin Scorsese’s dark,
disturbing drama would not be at
the top of most lists of family-
friendly films, the 1976 movie
inspired Yelchin to act, and he
made his television debut in a
2000 episode of “ER,” playing aboy whose parents were killed in
an accident.
Yelchin’s l ife wasn’t a s charmed
as it may have appeared to his
fans. As a child, he was diagnosed
with cystic fibrosis, requiring dai-
ly treatments and hours of
breathing exercises for the rest of
his life.
“Love, Antosha” takes its title
from the way Yelchin signed let-
ters to his mother, evidence of a
close and enduring relationship
that seems to have driven his
creativity and his generosity of
spirit. In the movie, we see a
genuineness that set him apart
from many of his Hollywood
peers. In a clip of Yelchin receiv-
ing an award for his breakout
2002 performance in “House of
D,” director David Duchovny
comes off as smarmy, boasting of
his own creative integrity and
“morality” as he introduces
Yelchin. Yelchin, by contrast,
seems modest and unassuming.
By all accounts he never grew
out of that.
Such earnestness is a large part
of what makes “Love, Antosha” at
once charming and bittersweet.
But the film loses focus a little as
it heaps accolades on the late
actor. While Yelchin’s “Star Trek”castmate Chris Pine comes off as
just relatable as Yelchin — and
such veterans as Willem Dafoe
and Martin Landau share avun-
cular admiration — other remi-
niscences feel like distractions.
Still, it’s a brilliant touch to
have Nicolas Cage serve as an
occasional narrator. Quoting
from one of Yelchin’s journal en-
tries, written after the child ac-
tor’s first screen kiss, Cage reads,
“I hope it happens many more
times,” g ently leering in what may
be a memory of his own youth.
Later, when Cage works up to one
of his signature rants, reading
from an email in which Yelchin
lamented his disease, Cage’s per-
formance seems like something
that Yelchin himself would prob-
ably have appreciated.
Mostly, the Antosha of “Love,
Antosha” seems like a good kid:
someone whose life — and tragic
death — should inspire us to
spend our brief time here as
wisely and as well as he did.
[email protected]MTUCKMAN MEDIA
In “Love, Antosha,” Anton Yelchin, who died at age 2 7 in a freak
accident in 2016, comes off as prolific, precocious and talented.R. At Landmark’s E Street Cinema.
Contains strong language, some
sexuality and nudity (including a
photo Chris Pine says he wishes he
could unsee). 93 minutes.