Driveways                           4 ½ stars

We lost another Hollywood legend last year in Brian Dennehy, but not before he gave us a fine, understated performance in the short drama, Driveways, directed by Andrew Ahn. This personal, soft spoken movie starts with single mom Kathy (Hong Chau from Watchmen and the crippled immigrant woman from the disappointing Downsizing) and her introverted eight-year-old son, Cody (Lucas Jaye) arriving at the home of her deceased sister in order to clean it out and prepare it for sale, only to discover that the sister was a hoarder. Next door there is a quiet elderly widower, Del (Dennehy), a Korean War veteran who sits on his porch much of the day. Del notices the new activity at the house and engages in short conversations with the boy. Before long the two become more connected as Del teaches Cody to mow the lawn and introduces mother and son to his fellow veterans at the VFW. Through a sparing use of dialogue and some quiet intimate scenes we see two loners who communicate and support each other. The movie was released only weeks after Dennehy passed away and it gives us an excellent performance by the guy who played Willy Loman and John Wayne Gacy. Hong Chau also is effective as the overwhelmed mother, Kathy. Look for more good roles for this actress.  Driveways is an hour, and 23 minutes long and is available on Netflix.