You leave this two-hour home-rnovie documentary
amused, deeply touched and quietly philosophical... Time Indefinite
goes South again. But this time McElwee comes marching home. In visits
with his family – his ageing grandmother, work-driven father and
brother, lifelong maid, Lucille, and others – he re-explores his
family role. Long regarded as the McElwee oddball (in a family full
of doctors and traditional women), the soft-spoken, bearded filmmaker
examines his relationship with his relatives... During McElwee's filming
of porch get-togethers, dinners, beach wanderings and whatever else
takes his fancy, sundry questions arise, from existential to absurd.
What worries him so much about babies, he wonders, as his brother proudly
and repeatedly thrusts his newborn before McElwee's lens? Will he never
shave that beard, his ailing grandmother wants to know. Why does his
camera seem to lose battery power when his father's around? Why do Jehovah's
Witnesses follow him around the country? Most significantly perhaps,
is McElwee living his life or depicting it? McElwee has a significant
announcement for the family at the beginning of Time Indefinite.
He and Marilyn Levine, who is also a filmmaker, intend to get married.
McElwee's standing in the family reaches an immediate, unprecedented
high. The movie enjoys an early euphoria. McElwee (with characteristic
trepidation) is actually going to join the world of people – those
characters in front of his lens. But he still brings his camera to everything,
from stag night with his filmmaking friends (who else?) to telling Grandma
the good news. Minutes before the wedding ceremony, McElwee is still
filming Marilyn... Time Indefinite becomes increasingly tempered
with tragedy, ranging from the horror of a fisherman gleefully encouraging
his son to stomp a caught, wriggling fish, to Charleen coming to grips
with a searing family loss. Standing slightly apart from his life and
the people in it, McElwee enters his existence in a profoundly stirring
way. — Desson Howe, Washington Post
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