'American treasures': 'A Love Song' gives Dale Dickey, Wes Studi the spotlight they deserve

There are no age limits on romance … except in the movies. Unless you’re young, dynamic and possess a waist narrower than your chest, Hollywood prefers to avert its eyes. Not a boon to the box office, you know. That’s what makes writer-director Max Walker-Silverman’s debut feature, “A Love Song,” such a gem. It’s about two long-widowed Coloradans revisiting a flirtation that came ever so close to igniting 50 years ago. Is the spark still there?

Walker-Silverman is certainly in no hurry to answer the question. Heck, the could-be lovers don’t even lay crinkled eyes on each other until a half-hour into a movie checking in at a mere 81 minutes. Their rendezvous in a parched Rocky Mountain campsite is equally brief, a one-night stand under twinkling stars filling a sky made brighter by the absence of civilization. But they are not alone.

Time, life’s greatest enemy, plays like an intrusive third wheel. Neither Faye nor Lito, portrayed brilliantly by American treasures Dale Dickey and Wes Studi, knows quite what to make of each other as they battle trepidation and the shock of witnessing the heavy toll the years have taken on their faces. They aren’t kids anymore. Not by a long shot. But in their minds, they are young again, flirting as they savor ice cream cones, skim rocks, and sing and play said “Love Song” on their guitars, their voices and souls once again in harmony.

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It’s certainly moving and more than a bit sad. This may be their last chance at romance. We know it, they know it. Yet, like the 16-year-olds they remain at heart, they struggle to find the words, unsure of what exactly they are feeling – just like teenagers. Some things never change. And therein resides the reassurance that we’re never too old to find love again, no matter how long that moment might last.

Dickey and Studi perform this sometimes awkward mating ritual with minimal dialogue. Through body language and facial expressions, they tell us all we need know. And what we glean is that life is hard, but even harder when you’ve lost your spouse before their time. Can the love of your life ever be replaced? That’s the unspoken question dancing inside the minds of Faye and Lito. It’s as though each believes they are being unfaithful in even considering making love. But loneliness is a tough mother.

So is selling a movie in which not much happens. For Walker-Silverman, it’s all about ambience and location. It’s an organic style of filmmaking not unlike Terrence Malick’s approach of considering humans as much a part of nature as the mountains and gorgeous wildflowers surrounding Faye and Lito. Director of photography Alfonso Herrera Salcedo poetically captures it all with a minimum of fuss. Like the movie, he believes less is more, adding immeasurably to the realism that renders “A Love Song” so poignant.

Well, that and the Oscar-worthy performances by Dickey and Studi, the latter happily breaking free of the restraints of always playing “the Native American” to just playing a guy whose ethnicity is irrelevant. And he makes the most of it in depicting Loti as a shy, decent man who sees value in everything, including Faye’s deeply lined face.

“You’re beautiful,” he says. “No, really,” he adds after she shoots him the “stop BS-ing me” look.

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He’s right, you know. Dickey IS beautiful. And Salcedo’s camera loves every crack and crevice in her highly expressive face. It’s the countenance of a woman who’s a warrior as well as a survivor. Best known as the cranky spouse of the meth kingpin in “Winter’s Bone,” Dickey makes the case that you don’t need to look like Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts to play the romantic lead. In fact, she eclipses both with her affecting portrayal of a woman who’s seen it all … and wants to see more.

Walker-Silverman says he wrote “A Love Song” especially for Dickey. She returns the favor with superlative work, hoisting this smallish film onto her even tinier shoulders and carrying it from start to finish. She’s in every scene, as Walker-Silverman invites you to share Faye’s daily routines of fishing for crawdads, birding and solitude. She and her camper are fixtures along a dying lake in the shadow of the mountains near Telluride. It’s there that she anticipates Loti’s arrival.

Initially, there’s a bit of “Waiting for Godot,” as she eagerly hopes Loti has accepted her invitation to meet up with her on the terrain they once explored as kids. She stares longingly down the dusty road searching for his approaching car, interrupted only by the occasional interloper, be it neighboring campers or a family of Native Americans bent on exhuming their father from beneath her rig and moving him to a more scenic location.

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Yes, “A Love Song” can be a bit too quirky, at times bordering on annoying. You’d rather Walker-Silverman had played down the kitsch and concentrated more on the machinations between Faye and Loti. But you’ll take it if it means a too-rare opportunity to watch two aging character actors have at it, proving that loving another person, and yourself, are not exclusive to the young. And perhaps, as with wine, amour only gets better with age.

'A Love Song'

Rated: PG for mild thematic elements.

Cast: Dale Dickey and Wes Studi.

Director: Max Walker-Silverman.

Writer: Max Walker-Silverman.

Runtime: 81 minutes.

Where: In theaters.

Grade: B+.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Movie: 'Love Song' gives Dale Dickey, Wes Studi deserving spotlight