Friday, July 20, 2018

The Hollars (2016)

This film had major issues. Sally Hollar (the great Margo Martindale) suffers a seizure and is found to have a brain tumor and must have major surgery as soon as possible. Her situation is so precarious that her wayward son, John (John Krasinski) flies in from New York.
Despite the fact that he never calls home and won't marry his pregnant girlfriend, Rebecca (Anna Kendrick) for whatever reasons, John is far more normal than his older brother, Ron (Sharlto Copley) who stalks his ex-wife and sneaks into her house to spend time with his daughters and is pissed that she's moved on while he hasn't. And the patriarch (Richard Jenkins) is in denial about his plumbing business going bankrupt.
The film is touchingly sweet at times and real but has issues and the ending is devastating and falls flat. Who knows if the business will survive this recession and what was the problem with John and Rebecca's relationship in the first place, I mean, yes becoming a parent must be terrifying, but still, it didn't make much sense to me. Also, Jason (Charlie Day) as Sally's annoying nurse, he was extremely obnoxious and having Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Jason's wife and John's former high school girlfriend and only having her in one scene is just ridiculous, she's too good of an actress to be in so little of the film.
That being said, it had good music and did show a great little snapshot of a family in turmoil. It's just a shame that so many talented good actors were wasted with this flimsy script when it could have been so much better. Grade: B

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