Directed by “The Office” star John Krasinski,
“The Hollars” is a Sundance dramedy about an aspiring
New York City artist named John Hollar (Krasinski) facing a crossroads in his life. He’s unhappy
professionally and full of anxiety over the impending birth of his child, but
he puts those troubles on hold to face all new ones when he leaves the city to
return home to his dysfunctional family in Ohio after he learns that his mother
(character actress Margo Martindale) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
There’s a somewhat clichéd notion about what makes a stereotypical
Sundance movie. You know the type: modestly ambitious family dramas filled with
quirky characters and tearful life lessons set to an acoustic, indie-rock
soundtrack. Well, sometimes those kind of stereotypes exist for a reason. Exhibit
A: “The Hollars,” 100 percent.
Since it’s Krasinski
directing (from a script by James C. Strouse), he’s
able to fill his movie with a cast of recognizable faces. Anna Kendrick plays
John’s pregnant girlfriend, whom he has cold feet about proposing marriage;
Richard Jenkins is his well-meaning, but struggling father; and Sharlto Copley is his ne’er do well brother. Mary Elizabeth
Winstead shows up as John’s former fiancée with Charlie
Day as her new husband (who just so happens to be his mother’s nurse), and
there’s also small roles for Mary Kay Place, Randall Park, and Josh Groban. It’s an incredibly talented cast, who perform their
roles well. Martindale in particular is incapable of giving a bad performance,
and she provides the film’s strongest, most emotionally resonant moments.
But the derivative story is a hurdle “The Hollars”
can never quite clear. It wasn’t even the only film about an emotionally
constipated white guy who returns home to care for an ailing mother that was
released at Sundance this year. It doesn’t help matters that the other film,
“Other People” — starring Jesse Plemons (“Friday
Night Lights”) and Molly Shannon — does a much better job with the same
material (it opens in Rochester next month). Still, “The Hollars” does what it
sets out to do; you’ll laugh, you might even cry, but you’re likely to have
forgotten all about it by the time you leave the theater.
This article appears in Sep 21-27, 2016.
