Directed by: Liza Johnson.
Written by: Mark Poirier based on the short story by Alice Munro.
Starring: Kristen Wiig (Johanna Parry), Guy Pearce (Ken), Hailee Steinfeld (Sabitha), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Chloe), Sami Gayle (Edith), Christine Lahti (Eileen), Nick Nolte (Mr. McCauley).
Hateship
Loveship is the perfect example of why there have been very few film
adaptations of recent Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro. Munro’s work, almost all
short stories, is usually about buried emotions – with characters who often do
not say what they are really feeling. Almost everything in a Munro story is
beneath the surface. Liza Johnson’s Hateship Loveship tries to pull off the
same trick that Sarah Polley’s Away From Her – another Munro adaptation – was
able to do, which is to find a cinematic way to achieve what Munro does in
literature. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really come close to doing what Away From
Her did. That movie was quiet and subtle, and was able to suggest deep emotions
without verbalizing them all that much. Hateship Loveship is just as quiet as
Away From Her – but doesn’t tap into the same emotions. It has a cast of
characters, who we are supposed to find deep and complex, but more often than
not come across as comatose.
In
the film Kristen Wiig plays Johanna Parry, a woman who has spent most of her
adult life working for an elderly woman as a caregiver. The film opens with
that woman dying, and Johanna getting another job. She is hired by Mr. McCauley
(Nick Nolte) to help care for his teenage granddaughter, Sabitha (Hailee
Steinfeld). Her mother, McCauley’s daughter, was killed is a drinking and
driving accident where her father, Ken (Guy Pearce) was the drunk driver. He’s
spent some time in jail, but is now out and wants to rebuild his life –
although McCauley, understandably, doesn’t like his son-in-law that much. He
lives in Chicago and is struggling with his addictions – the presence of Chloe
(Jennifer Jason Leigh), another addict, doesn’t help very much. Ken is there when
Johanna starts her new job – but lives in Chicago, a few hours away. He’s nice
to Johanna when they meet – and she decides to send him a thank you card.
Sabitha, along with her friend Edith (Sami Gayle) decide to play a cruel trick
on Johanna – and make her think she’s writing e-mails to Ken, when really she’s
e-mailling them. Johanna falls in love with Ken via the internet – and then
goes to see him. Things do not turn out the way Johanna planned – or the way
the audience expects.
The
film’s performances are admirable in their attempt to create complex characters
without ever really vocalizing their true feelings. Almost everything is shown
through looks and body language – as the characters past wounds, and present
struggles with them come to light. Wiig, known mainly for comedies, is actually
quite good as Johanna. She is the quietest character in a film full of them –
the one with the most in her past that we only get glimpses of. She has a rich
life inside her head, and we wince as she tries to make that a reality – since
we know more than she does. The rest of the cast is similarly complex – what
Sabitha and Edith do to Johanna is horrid, but they are not evil teenagers. Ken
is a man who killed his wife in a drunken accident, and one that still struggles
with his demons, but he’s trying, McCauley hates Ken, but that makes sense, and
his scenes with the town gossip (Christine Lahti) suggest that there is more to
both characters than meets the eye.
I
admire the attempt that Johnson, her cast and writer Mark Poirer make to adapt
Munro. They really do try to achieve something similar to what Munro does in
her work. But the ambition is mainly left unfulfilled – the movie is so morose,
quiet, sad and slow moving – and the actors are asked to do so much with so
little to actually work with, that the result was more of a slog than anything
else. The film is an honorable effort – but one that never quite achieves what
it sets out to – and is rather dull in the attempt.
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