A Year In Mooring

Movie: A Year In Mooring--filming in TC


Sometimes good things just fall into your lap while you are simply minding your own business. It all started Friday morning, October 30, while I was just getting my work day started. I had just posted a rather mundane thing on Facebook about storing my bonsai trees for the winter. The phone rang. His name is Shawn Carroll, Prop Master for an upcoming movie called “A Year in Mooring” to be filmed near Traverse City in late November, early December. He had been at Garden Goods nursery in Traverse City and talked to Robin, my friend of many years, about bonsai. He evidently asked enough questions that Robin suggested he call and talk to me. We had a 10-minute, light hearted chat about the movie and how the lead actress plays the part of a waitress at the Bayside Café who is trying to quit smoking. As part of her cessation program she tries her hand at the art of Bonsai. He needed a bonsai tree for a couple of days of shooting, and a consultant to help the actress learn how to become a bonsai artist. I suggested he stop by and see my trees. He did so, and we enjoyed about a half hour of delightful conversation and explored possibilities. He took pictures and notes and told me he would pitch the idea to the director, Chris Eyre, and others involved with the movie. Monday I got an email saying he wanted me to be the paid bonsai consultant, and now wanted to rent four trees for the shoot. He would need them for the full three week shoot, as they would be at least in the background for many of the scenes. In other scenes the trees would be close-ups with the actress ‘working on them’. Central to the plot is a mariner who left his business life behind and took up residence on a sail boat, docked at the marina, adjacent to the café. The mariner is to be played by Josh Lucas of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ fame where he starred with Reese Witherspoon. James Cromwell will also play a roll in the movie. Ayelet Zurer will play the part of the waitress--she was in Angels and Demons. Shooting will begin on Monday, November 16.

Dean Bull Blog - Nov 12, 2009



http://community.mynorth.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2345865%3ABlogPost%3A40928

Ayelet's in Michigan filming.

Seems to be a smaller budget movie yet an interesting one. And one that Ayelet's character is one of the main protagonist.
Here are a few entries from Dean Bull's Blog.

As planned I was at Bower's Harbor about 9 a.m. They made a change so they could take advantage of the sunshine, filming scenes on the boat with Josh Lucas--not bonsai related stuff. I watched for a little over an hour; it is a very tedious process. As it stands now, I am 'on call' for later this afternoon or Wednesday. Shawn will call and give me a half-hour heads up when they will need me. Needless to say, I am looking forward to meeting Ayelet Zurer. I will try to keep you updated here.

As planned I was at Bower's Harbor about 9 a.m. They made a change so they could take advantage of the sunshine, filming scenes on the boat with Josh Lucas--not bonsai related stuff. I watched for a little over an hour; it is a very tedious process. As it stands now, I am 'on call' for later this afternoon or Wednesday. Shawn will call and give me a half-hour heads up when they will need me. Needless to say, I am looking forward to meeting Ayelet Zurer.

Tuesday 9:30 pm...Shawn called me to the movie set about 4:30. I had to skip out on TG dinner with Pa, but felt I had to make the trade. Ayelet is a delightful person--a true breath of fresh air. We worked on developing the bonsai artist part of her character for about an hour. She is going to nail it, I can just tell. It is an honor for me to be involved with this I will be back tomorrow early morning for more of the same as they shoot scenes with bonsai. Also bringing some tropical trees into the mix, as requested today...

There is much I do not know about the movie industry, but The wheels seem to move very slowly. Timing is always a huge factor, time is another. At lunch today, Josh Lucas and Ayelet Zurer explained that it would probably be January of 2011, judging from their experiences with previous similar work. (Is it still name dropping if it really did happen that way?) Seriously, I sat down at an empty table with my plate from the lunch bar and within two minutes, Ayelet sat down across the table from me. A moment later, Josh sat down to my left. The three of us chewed lunch and 'the fat' for the whole hour lunch break. They are both just as down-to-earth and fun as you can imagine. It is a very good thing that we don't get what we deserve--I may not deserve to have THIS much fun--but what do I know? Coaching Ayelet in bonsai pruning and adjusting branches is a piece of cake. She is sharp, attentive and very focused--asks just the right question to help me clarify what I mean. I think my trees are enjoying being worked on by her. I hope they still will come home with me.
More later. Thanks for all the wonderful comments above. Yes "exciting" is exactly the right word!
--Dean

Link to Dean's Blog:
http://community.mynorth.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2345865%3ABlogPost%3A40928&page=2#comments

Ayelet on set of her new movie! (courtesy of Dean Bull's Blog)

Ayelet Zurer is securing her position as the most successful Israeli actress in Hollywood. After starring alongside Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor in "Angels & Demons", which made $500 million across the world, Zurer has received the leading female role in director Chris Eyre's new film "A Year in Mooring".

The film's cast also includes Josh Lucas ("A Beautiful Mind", "Sweet Home Alabama"), one of the busiest and most captivating actors in Hollywood these days. Zurer plays a waitress who enters the main character's life.

"The film is a lyrical and poetic drama," says Zurer. "The script is beautiful and this project appears to combine talent, motivation and passion. I like the issues it deals with."

"A Year in Mooring" tells the story of a successful businessman seeking to escape his past and a tragedy he experienced. In an attempt to deal with the grief, he leaves his home and settles in a boat mooring in a tranquil port. He quickly discovers that the port is inhabited by adventurous people with a dubious or troubled past.

"A Year in Mooring" has begun shooting in Michigan, and Zurer is already on the set. "It's very, very cold here," she reports, "but the atmosphere is enchanting and pleasant, and Josh is simply a great guy."


http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3820856,00.html

It has taken awhile, but this movie is finally previewing. Hopefully it will be one of those small films that finds and audience and is able to expand out of Limited Release.

Here are a few snippets from various reviews:

VARIETY

Peter Vanderwall's elliptical script covers several months in the life of a successful businessman (Josh Lucas) who tries to recover -- or escape, or both -- from a terrible tragedy while living aboard a decrepit sailboat he's slowly restoring.

Identified in the credits only as the Young Mariner, the businessman arrives at a small-town harbor in North Michigan looking singularly ill-prepared for nautical life (he shows up wearing a suit and dragging a wheeled suitcase), and reveals more industriousness than skill or experience during extended trial-and-error efforts to repair the boat.

From their vantage point at the harbor cafe, two other unnamed characters monitor his plodding progress: the Waitress (Ayelet Zurer), a taciturn beauty who's trying, without much success, to quit smoking; and the Ancient Mariner (James Cromwell), a salty old dog who's haunted by unpleasant memories of his own.

As days drift into weeks, the businessman occasionally interacts with the cafe regulars and the local grocery-store checkout clerk (Casey LaBow). For the most part, though, he keeps to himself, his work and his memories, which may leave him with way too much time on his hands.

Eyre (who first attracted attention with 1998 Sundance prizewinner "Smoke Signals") doesn't exactly make it easy for his audience here, and some may be inclined to bail during several long, dialogue-free sequences in which Lucas' character does nothing more dramatic than tinker with pumps and motors. But those who can get into the rhythms of the pic will appreciate the potency of its overarching metaphor and the subtle expressiveness of Lucas' performance. "Mooring" teases the audience with only vague hints of what drove the businessman into self-exile, offering flashbacks that stop short of fully explaining precisely what happened. But Lucas' haunted, guilt-racked demeanor tells viewers all they really need to know, and provides more than enough motivation to wish his character well during his arduous rebirth.

The supporting characters are even more sketchily drawn, and are defined almost entirely by the actors who portray them. But Zurer's mature sensuality and intelligence, Cromwell's avuncular wisdom and LaBow's poignant vulnerability serve the pic very well indeed. Jon Tenney provides a few welcome moments of comic relief as a recently divorced father who's perhaps a bit too eager to tell how much he's enjoying his new freedom.

SXSW Review
Our lead is on a island and slowly this community creeps in, again with great restraint. He drinks himself to sleep every night, fixing the ship. Although in exile there are places he can’t avoid, like the supermarket. He forms a connection with a Lauren (Casey LaBow) – a checkout clerk. While they may have something there, she is a key person in this time and place. She isn’t going to pull him from this funk, but she assists in breaking down a wall.

He forms a relationship with a waitress (Ayelet Zurer) and her father, an Ancient Mariner (James Cromwell), letting new people in that pose an emotional risk to his process. Cromwell is effective as a wise Ancient Mariner showing the Young Mariner who to repair a sail and the film isn’t shy about its use of metaphor.

Much of the film has an internal rhythm with the sensibilities of a novel. It doesn’t quite achieve poetry but does reach a quiet peaceful inner-beauty through the nights of hard drinking and work on the ship. It isn’t the work that sets this character free so much as the time he uses to mourn naturally. Eyre has crafted an effective but imperfect emotional journey.