Here’s a weird one for ya, Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke are both 51, and I don’t know which one I thought was older, but I didn’t expect them to be the same age.
Then again, I wouldn’t necessarily have thought they’d be so convincing as half-brothers in the aggressively quirky and darkly funny comedy/drama “Raymond & Ray,” but they are and here we are, and it’s a good place to be.
The Scotsman who often plays majestic characters and the Texan who specializes in playing antiheroes play beautifully off one another in writer-director Rodrigo Garcia’s offbeat gem, which starts like an adaptation of a Sam Shepard play before eventually settling into something a little more conventional, but nonetheless satisfying.
“Raymond & Ray” opens with McGregor’s Raymond showing up in the middle of the night at the remote cabin home occupied by his brother Ray (Hawke) to announce, “Our father is dead.” It’s quickly established neither brother has seen their dad Harris in years — and the fact he named them both “Raymond” is the first indication this guy was a real piece of work, aka quite the a------.
The reserved, neatly coiffed Raymond is a stark contrast to his disheveled, jazz musician, recovering heroin addict brother, but as the two men take a road trip to their father’s memorial service, we gradually learn they’re BOTH supremely screwed-up, and they both blame much of that on their abusive, manipulative and often absentee father.
What a surprise, then, when they meet a handful of colorful characters from the old man’s most recent years who speak in glowing terms of his warmth, his humor, his passion for life. Maribel Verdú is the glowing life force Lucia, who was Harris’ lover for a brief time and introduces them to her precocious young son Simon (Maxim Swinton), who is their half-brother. Sophie Okonedo is Harris’ nurse, Kiera, who doesn’t usually show up at her patients’ memorial services, but there was something special about Harris. Then there’s the nattily attired Reverend (Vondie Curtis Hall), perhaps Harris’ biggest fan of all.
They’re among the small group that assembles in the cemetery, where the two Rays literally dig their father’s grave, at his dying request. (One last way for him to mess with their heads.)
“Raymond & Ray” veers from absurdist comedy to slapstick madness to pounding drama, as Ray openly vents his hostilities while Raymond continues to hold in his resentment until he finally can’t, and he explodes with ferocious rage. Before the grave is fully dug, somebody takes out a trumpet, someone else takes out a gun, and there’s an acrobatic performance from a couple of fraternal twins (not Raymond & Ray, two other guys) as well.
Not everything works. Okonedo and Verdú are wonderful actors and they’re both immensely appealing here, but their characters seem to exist primarily to “be there” for the two Rays and to provide next-level comfort. We also see a couple of plot developments coming a half-mile down the road.
Still, the writing is insightful and crisp, and Hawke and McGregor shine as two men who really don’t know each other all that well but have always felt close because they had to cling to one another in a united front against a father who continues to dominate their thoughts even after he’s gone.
