‘Nostalgia’ Is a Quiet Meditation on Loss and the Significance of Possessions

What makes a life and what is left after one is gone is the focus of “Nostalgia,” an arthouse drama from director Mark Pellington and writer Alex Ross Perry that follows a group of people dealing with the aftermaths of the loss of a loved one. The film also explores what people value at different stages of life and how this can lead to tension among the generations. Slow and reflective, the film gives the likes of Jon Hamm an opportunity to show off some serious acting chops.

A tapestry telling multiple stories, “Nostalgia” focuses first on Daniel (John Ortiz), an insurance agent, a job that entails, as we see here, great patience and a talent for listening. The agent has to be sensitive, yet professionally distance. First he visits Ronald (Bruce Dern), an elderly widower who seems to find comfort in being surrounded by the items accumulated during his life with his late wife. However, his granddaughter, Bethany (Amber Tamblyn), sees his unwillingness to part with his things as lack of generosity. With help from Daniel she is able to somewhat understand her grandfather’s point of view, even if it doesn’t exactly ease her burden.

That age-old hypothetical question, “What would you take if your house was on fire?” is examined in the next chapter when Daniel visits an elderly widow, Helen (a moving Ellen Burstyn), whose house has just burned down. One item she managed to grab is a keepsake baseball that belonged to her late husband, not so much because she is a baseball fan, but because of the ball’s sentimental value; it meant a lot to her husband and it’s something that brings her comfort. However, after her son (Nick Offerman) presents her with the idea of going into assisted living, she comes to see selling the baseball as a way to preserve her independence, and her journey leads her to Vegas and appraiser Will (Jon Hamm).

The final chapter deals with Will flying to his hometown to help his sister Donna (Catherine Keener) go through the possessions left behind by their parents, who have recently relocated to a condo. Despite his job, Will cannot as easily be objective when it comes to items personal to himself. There are a lot of nice, quiet moments of reflection here, as well as touching and funny moments between the siblings, who have genuine affection for each other despite their living drastically different lives miles apart.

Things take a turn after the sudden death of Donna’s daughter. The father of the deceased (James LeGros) is grieved that there is little left to remember his child, as a phone and laptop was also destroyed. His loss sheds light on a little-discussed drawback of our living in the digital age, the lack of tangible items that will be left behind for loved ones in the generations to come.

“Nostalgia” contains much dialogue, a hallmark of any Ross Perry screenplay, but it is also meditative and gives the viewer much upon which to ponder.

Nostalgia” opens Feb. 16 in select theaters.