Darker than Larry Crowne (2011), The Good House (directed by the married team of Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky who co-wrote in a threesome with Thomas Bezucha (Let Him Go) is a solid dramedy starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. Biased with a long running man crush on Kevin Kline, I don’t think anyone would dispute that the first five minutes of The Good House clunks along as clumsily as an old wooden roller coaster until Kevin appears on screen in his quirky wild haired small town construction dude attire, pumping his gas and jiving to yacht rock.
Kline, if you’ve forgotten since he doesn’t work very often any longer (I confess I’m not hip the Bob’s Burgers…is it any good?), won an Oscar for a comedy (practically a Ripley’s Believe it or Not) and was nominated 5 times for Golden Globes. And, not to be redundant, still sexy after all these years.
Weaver also GORGEOUS at 73, is brave enough to take on the role of functioning alcoholic. She skates the fine line between denial and stoicism with finesse.
The story is spot on, small town Massachusetts politics and property wars galore.
The movie flounders in the acting of minor characters, with the exception of Morena Baccarin who is totally believable of a wealthy, dissatisfied housewife. All the other characters seemed to be acting too broadly. A shame since I think the characters with a more subtle touch were written well; lazy millennial real estate assistant, shaky parents with and autistic child, AA friend, drama queen daughter, just to name a few.
I’ll be bringing this film up again, once The Whale premieres and looking at it through the lens of do these films reflect the climate of rude children (Sigourney’s film daughters are rude insulting brats) or “direct” society (meaning attempt at normalizing rude, outrageous children). And while I’ll never see it, a trailer I saw for Bones and All, where a father says he ‘understands’ his daughter’s need to have cannibalistic tendencies, I’m thinking, unfortunately these films direct society. A sad state of affairs.
But I digress, go see The Good House as Weaver and Kline still have the chemistry!
