Sony Pictures Classics
Actors transitioning to directors. It happens. And there are a lot of them as it turns out, but it’s a mixed bag of results. The temperament and capability to direct well is different from acting. There’s a lot of control but also a lot of responsibility. When a bad movie happens, it’s rare not to give the director some blame, unless they’re just hampered by studio interference. So … what about Jim from The Office?
The Hollars comes from first time director John Krasinski, who also stars as John Hollar, the sort of star of the story. John lives in New York with his pregnant girlfriend Rebecca (Anna Kendrick) and has a boring job, having given up on his creative dreams. But things change when he gets terrible news: His mother Sally (Margo Martindale) is in the hospital back home in the small town he grew up in. So John (it’s weird that it’s the same name as the actor right?) heads home to spend time with his family.
It’s a interesting mix of characters. The father Don is played by the great Richard Jenkins, who is a bit of a mess, running an accounting business with trouble brewing. Sharlto Copley plays Ron, John’s brother who has some sort of mental problem and has a problematic history. Ron is divorced with two kids, and has been having trouble letting go. So it’s all in the midst of this terrible news that Sally has a brain tumor and needs surgery.
As to be expected with this sort of indie movie, there isn’t much “plot” to speak of. It’s a lot of conversations, a lot of acting, a lot of people looking pensive, and a lot of depressed white people (Ron’s ex-wife is black, but she doesn’t have much of a character). The movie is about the family trying to deal with this new tragedy and address all of their simmering worries and failures. John’s arc is about failing his new family and trying to keep his old one together.
The twin performances of Richard Jenkins and Margo Martindale are just astoundingly good. Every moment on screen was just amazing to watch, especially when it was the two conversing about their complex marriage, two people who love each other but aren’t one dimensional caricatures. It’s the kind of performances I’ll remember at the end of the year when I’ll have forgotten this movie entirely.
The movie isn’t afraid to gut punch you with emotion and sadness, although there are certainly moments of lightness and levity. Ron is sort of a ridiculous character, one that doesn’t entirely work. He seems out of place in the more “realistic” world the rest of the movie is painting. As for John, he seems to afraid to do too much. Perhaps Krasinski was worried he’d be acting like a comedian.
But the few times John needs to show some real emotion, he does it well. And naturally, Anna Kendrick is great, as to be expected. The movie is an hour and forty-five minutes long, and not everything is paced that well. For every beautiful moment with the parents, there’s another with Ron’s silly and illegal behavior that slowed everything down.
When I think about the direction, I think: fine. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything that was that interesting or unique in a way I’ll remember. It could be any indie movie or any indie director, there’s no Krasinski style just yet, But he knows how to shoot character reactions and emotional beats well, so I see potential here. It’s not a movie that’s inherently that great, but man … the acting hit me hard.
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