August 22, 2022

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Faye (Dale Dickey), a woman in her 60s, hasn’t been this nervous in years. She’s just parked her yellow-and orange-striped trailer at a middle-of-nowhere Colorado campground, not for a leisurely getaway but a long-time-coming reunion. She’s expecting Lito (Wes Studi), a childhood friend and one-time love interest she hasn’t seen in decades. Both have lost their spouses in recent years; we infer (it’s never specified) that neither Coloradan has any immediate dating leads, with both finally admitting to themselves that their late-in-life loneliness has become unendurable. Faye can only spend her days birding and reading for so much longer, and Lito’s beloved dog’s companionship only goes so deep. 

Although this rural site has history for the two — it’s where, in 1970, they went on a field trip with their classmates and shared a tentative kiss when they had a moment alone — it’s hard to understand why a dinner date posed less appeal. (For Faye, getting here in her worn-down Chevy truck took about a day.) But the odd choice comes with lovely touches that make you glad these lovelorn seniors went with it: Lito standing in front of Faye’s trailer clutching a wilted-from-the-car-ride bouquet of golden aster, nervously fixing his hair; a touching extended sequence where Lito teaches Faye how to play Michael Hurley’s “Be Kind to Me” on the electric guitar he brought; a moment by the lake where Lito, who assures his weathered date of her beauty, takes her first photo since her husband died.

Read the full column on 425.