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The Good House
A superb performance from three time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver makes a somewhat cliched character study/melodrama from 2021 called The Good House worth a look.
Weaver plays Hildy Good, a divorced, alcoholic real estate agent with grown daughters, who resides in a quaint New England seaside community. Between her failing business and her struggle to stay sober, Hildy is headed toward a cliff that not even a reconnection with an ex (Oscar winner Kevin Kline) can prevent.
Three writers contributed to the screenplay that starts off with a storytelling technique that really didn't fit the story that comes to light. As the film begins, Hildy is not only serving as her story's narrator, but is speaking directly to the camera. This is a storytelling technique that seems more suited to comedy, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but confuses the viewer, thinking we're going to get a much lighter story than we do. A little past the halfway point of the film, Hildy stops talking to the camera, which made the rest of the story a little easier to bear for some reason. It was odd when Hildy interrupts an intervention by her family to talk to the audience.
The story does have an element of predictability due to the amount of screentime spent in establishing the fact that Hildy is an alcoholic. Unfortunately, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Hildy's battle with sobriety is a losing one and we're just waiting to see how it's going to manifest itself for this particular movie alcoholic, who makes it clear from the beginning that she doesn't think she has a problem. But what made this movie watchable was the vivid and delicious performance from Weaver that entertains with minimum scenery chewing that makes the viewer care about what happens to the character.
The film features lovely New England scenery and other solid production values, but it's the performances that keep the viewer interested. Weaver receives solid support from Kline, who brings more to the role than the screenplay does and from David Rasche as her ex-husband, Molly Brown and Rebecca Henderson as her daughters, and Kathryn Erbe as a rival real estate agent. There are mixed messages about alcoholism and it gets overly melodramatic in the third act, but Weaver makes it a pretty smooth ride.
A superb performance from three time Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver makes a somewhat cliched character study/melodrama from 2021 called The Good House worth a look.
Weaver plays Hildy Good, a divorced, alcoholic real estate agent with grown daughters, who resides in a quaint New England seaside community. Between her failing business and her struggle to stay sober, Hildy is headed toward a cliff that not even a reconnection with an ex (Oscar winner Kevin Kline) can prevent.
Three writers contributed to the screenplay that starts off with a storytelling technique that really didn't fit the story that comes to light. As the film begins, Hildy is not only serving as her story's narrator, but is speaking directly to the camera. This is a storytelling technique that seems more suited to comedy, like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but confuses the viewer, thinking we're going to get a much lighter story than we do. A little past the halfway point of the film, Hildy stops talking to the camera, which made the rest of the story a little easier to bear for some reason. It was odd when Hildy interrupts an intervention by her family to talk to the audience.
The story does have an element of predictability due to the amount of screentime spent in establishing the fact that Hildy is an alcoholic. Unfortunately, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Hildy's battle with sobriety is a losing one and we're just waiting to see how it's going to manifest itself for this particular movie alcoholic, who makes it clear from the beginning that she doesn't think she has a problem. But what made this movie watchable was the vivid and delicious performance from Weaver that entertains with minimum scenery chewing that makes the viewer care about what happens to the character.
The film features lovely New England scenery and other solid production values, but it's the performances that keep the viewer interested. Weaver receives solid support from Kline, who brings more to the role than the screenplay does and from David Rasche as her ex-husband, Molly Brown and Rebecca Henderson as her daughters, and Kathryn Erbe as a rival real estate agent. There are mixed messages about alcoholism and it gets overly melodramatic in the third act, but Weaver makes it a pretty smooth ride.