Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce
“HATESHIP LOVESHIP” My rating: B (Now playing at the Screenland Armour)
104 minutes | MPAA rating: R
It seems that inside every comic genius there lurks a tragedian just itching to break out.
The latest funny person to make the leap into seriousness is former “SNL” star Kristen Wiig, who in “Hateship Loveship” excels at poartraying a lonely woman who risks all on a last desperate attempt at happiness.
Wiig plays Johanna, who as the film begins is a care-giver for an old lady in small-town Iowa. Johanna has no family and has been with the old lady since she was 15 — or more than half her life. As a result she is emotionally and intellectually naive, not to mention painfully shy.
With her employer’s death Johanna finds a new job in the household of lawyer McCauley (Nick Nolte), a widower caring for his teenage granddauther Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld, an Oscar nominee for the Coens’ “True Grit”). Her arrival coincides with a rare visit by Sabitha’s father Ken (Guy Pearce), an alcoholic and druggie whose irresponsible driving led to the death of his wife.
Now Ken is trying to convince his father-in-law to invest in his latest get-rich-quick scheme, refurbishing a run-down motel in Chicago. McCauley isn’t buying; besides, he’s never forgiven Ken for the death of his daughter.
Hailee Steinfeld, Nick Nolte
Ken returns emptyhanded to Chicago, but not before leaving a note for Johanna, thanking her for looking after Sabitha. But the girl has little use for this weird woman who is now supposed to mother her, and with a high school friend (Sami Gayle) begins a fake correspondence, posing as Ken and sending a series of emails to Johanna in which he professes his growing love.
That cruel trick has unexpected consequences when Johanna decides to drop everything and travel to Chicago to be with Ken. He, of course, is flummoxed by her sudden appearance, which interrupts his druggie reveries with his current squeeze (Jennnifer Jason Leigh).
Directed by Liza Johnson and adapted by writer Mark Poirier from a short story by the great Alice Munro, “Hateship Loveship’ feels almost like two movies. The first is a study of a pathologically lonely woman who is cruelly abused in a cruel prank.
The second, which unfolds in the big city, is an unexpected love story that slowly slips under our skins.
It probably shouldn’t work. But it does, thanks to a spectacular cast.
Initially Wiig’s Johanna is so quiet and still she seems borderline autistic. But little by little her personality grows. She’s never going to be the life of the party, but she exudes a quiet decency that in the end is quite comforting.
“Hateship Loveship” is old fashioned in that it starts slowly and just keeps getting better (most of today’s movies wear out every good idea they’ve got in the first 30 minutes). This is a quiet, humanistic story that builds in warmth. It never goes over the top, it never goes for cheap laughs or cheap sobs.
And, hey, any film that has the great Christine Lahti in even a small supporting role is OK in my book.
| Robert W. Butler
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