“In The Hero, Sam Elliott claims the center stage, in a role that often slyly invokes his iconic stature and voice. In the film’s opening sequence, his character, an aging actor named Lee Hayden, is recording a commercial for barbecue sauce, patiently doing take after take of the exact same line-reading: “The perfect partner for yer chicken.” What follows is a portrait of a lonely, isolated man who’s perfectly content to spend the day smoking weed with his dealer (Nick Offerman) and watching Buster Keaton comedies — that is, until he receives a piece of news that forces him to reach out to the handful of people populating the contact list on his phone.
“Directed by Brett Haley from a script he wrote with Marc Basch, The Hero moves at a leisurely pace. When he meets an attractive younger woman named Charlotte (Laura Prepon), his life takes an unexpected zag, which itself leads to more surprising developments.” - The Washington Post