Following up their daring and all-around extraordinary
romantic comedy “Obvious Child,” writer-director Gillian Robespierre and actor
Jenny Slate reteam for the authentic, heartfelt, and often very funny
“Landline,” a melancholy comedy about a Manhattan family in crisis.
Dana (Slate)
is experiencing some insecurity in her relationship with her sweet, but not
very exciting fiancรฉ, Ben (Jay Duplass). She’s happy, but left wondering
whether that’s all there is. She shares a generally combative relationship with
her headstrong teenage sister, Ali (Abby Quinn, in a superb debut). Although
Ali, for her part, is too busy sneaking out to experiment with sex and drugs,
and sorting through her own questions about her “not really” boyfriend Jed
(Marquis Rodriquez) to be overly concerned with the status of their sisterly
bond. Their parents (the always great John Turturro and Edie Falco) have
settled into their own routine, one which neither of them seems too content
with.
Then Ali
stumbles across a floppy disk that appears to contain evidence of her father’s
infidelity, a revelation which simultaneously brings the two girls together,
while sending them both into a collective tailspin. Dana embarks on her own
affair with an old college flame (Finn Wittrock) and moves back into the family
apartment to give herself some time to sort through these new developments.
“Landline”
is set in 1995, and while it never feels like it needs the period setting, it’s
at least handled organically, while adding a nice sense of specificity to the
story. Robespierre and Slate continue to make a great team, and the director
gives her leading lady room to stretch as a dramatic actor. Her chemistry with
Quinn is wonderful, and both are charming enough that we’re able to forgive
their characters’ occasionally appalling behavior.
As in
“Obvious Child,” Robespierre’s script (with co-writer Elisabeth Holm) is almost
ruthless in recognizing its characters’ faults. But crucially, this never
lessens the filmmaker’s obvious affection for them. They’re people left
disappointed by where they’ve ended up, but equally unsure about whether they’d
find any more pleasure in being somewhere else. “I’m flailing,” Dana says. “I’m
just trying to figure out if the life I’ve picked for myself is even the one
that I want. And I don’t even know if I’m allowed to ask that question.”
“Landline”
allows each of its characters to ask that question. It keeps things messy,
telling a story that takes place in that all too familiar space between the
person we are and the one we’d like to be, and recognizing that happiness
generally means making peace with living our lives somewhere in between.
Check back on Friday for additional film coverage, including a review of the documentary
“Rumble: Indians Who Rocked the World.”
This article appears in Aug 2-8, 2017.
