‘Place To Be’ Review: 93-Year-Old Ellen Burstyn Shines Teaming With Taika Waititi And A Wayward Pigeon In Kornél Mundruczó’s Touching Road Movie – Venice Film Festival — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Ellen Burstyn, 93, takes a rare leading role as widow Brooke in 'Place to Be,' a road movie that world-premiered out of competition at Venice where she also received the Golden Lion Life Achievement Award.
- Kornél Mundruczó directs from a screenplay by his partner Kata Wéber; the story follows Brooke from Chicago to New Jersey as she tries to return a racing pigeon named Intruder to its owner (David Wenham), picking up Taika Waititi's real estate agent Nelson on the train.
- Murray Bartlett plays Brooke's son Ron, who pressures her into a retirement home, while Pamela Anderson plays her more empathetic daughter Molly in what the Deadline reviewer calls part of Anderson's ongoing career resurgence.
- The Deadline review draws a direct parallel to 1974's 'Harry & Tonto' — noting Burstyn played Art Carney's daughter that same year she won Best Actress for 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore' — and calls the film a 'simple story about life and living' that avoids 'cutesy movie cliches.'
- 25 pigeons were used to portray Intruder, with the Deadline reviewer praising Burstyn's 'sterling and memorable performance' and noting a Golden Lion tribute alongside a Variety-reported 6-minute Venice ovation for the cast.
- Coverage is split on the film itself: while Deadline hails it as a 'lovely little film,' IndieWire's headline calls it an 'Otherwise Lackluster Late-Life Drama' — both outlets agreeing only that Burstyn herself is 'radiant.'
Why it matters: A 93-year-old woman carrying a leading role across an entire road movie is exceptionally rare, and Burstyn's Venice Life Achievement Award frames the premiere as a career capstone rather than a typical festival launch. With CAA handling sales, the project's commercial fate will test whether distributors will back a late-life drama built around an actress critics across the board call transcendent — even as outlets diverge sharply on whether the film matches her.
Ask SkimNews
