''Hateship, Loveship'' is a 2013 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Liza Johnson and written by
Mark Poirier
Mark Jude Poirier is an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.
He grew up in Tucson, Arizona, the fifth child in a family of eleven children. He lives in New York City with his partner, Edward Cahill.
Career
He wrote the novel ...
, based on the 2001 short story "
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" by
Alice Munro
Alice Ann Munro ( ; ; 10 July 1931 – 13 May 2024) was a Canadian short story writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Her work tends to move forward and backward in time, with integrated short story cycles.
Munro's ...
. The film stars
Kristen Wiig
Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Wiig achieved stardom in the late 2000s for her ...
,
Hailee Steinfeld
Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She had her breakthrough with the western film ''True Grit (2010 film), True Grit'' (2010), which earned her List of awards and nominations received by H ...
,
Guy Pearce
Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. List of awards and nominations received by Guy Pearce, His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy Film Aw ...
,
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh (born Jennifer Leigh Morrow; February 5, 1962) is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough in the teen film ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982). She re ...
and
Nick Nolte
Nicholas King Nolte (; born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. Known for his leading man roles in both dramas and romances, he has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. Nol ...
. It premiered at the
2013 Toronto International Film Festival
The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. ''The Fifth Estate (film), The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and ''Life of Crime (film), Life o ...
on September 6, 2013.
Plot
Johanna Parry must move to a new town to begin work as a housekeeper for Mr. McCauley, an elderly man who needs help keeping house, and to be a caretaker for McCauley's granddaughter, Sabitha. She meets Sabitha's father and McCauley's son-in-law, Ken, who does not live with Sabitha or McCauley, but instead resides in Chicago. Sabitha's best friend, Edith, tells Johanna (after Johanna asks where Sabitha's mother lives) that Ken's wife died several years ago. After inviting Johanna and Sabitha to dinner, Ken writes a friendly note to Johanna, which his daughter delivers. Johanna writes a response letter and Sabitha's friend Edith offers to take it to the post office and mail it. Instead, she intercepts the letter and, as a cruel joke, the two teenagers forge a love note from Ken, addressed to Johanna. Then they set up a fake email account for Ken (who does not have email). They impersonate him, responding to love emails from Johanna. "Ken" calls her "my only friend" but things may change when "Ken" asks Johanna to visit him in Chicago.
Cast
*
Kristen Wiig
Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Wiig achieved stardom in the late 2000s for her ...
as Johanna Parry
*
Hailee Steinfeld
Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She had her breakthrough with the western film ''True Grit (2010 film), True Grit'' (2010), which earned her List of awards and nominations received by H ...
as Sabitha
*
Guy Pearce
Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. List of awards and nominations received by Guy Pearce, His accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, and nominations for an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy Film Aw ...
as Ken
*
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh (born Jennifer Leigh Morrow; February 5, 1962) is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough in the teen film ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982). She re ...
as Chloe
*
Nick Nolte
Nicholas King Nolte (; born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. Known for his leading man roles in both dramas and romances, he has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. Nol ...
as Mr. McCauley
*
Sami Gayle
Samantha Gail Klitzman (born January 22, 1996) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as List of Blue Bloods characters#Nicky Reagan-Boyle, Nicky Reagan in the CBS series ''Blue Bloods (TV series), Blue Bloods''.
Early life
Kli ...
as Edith
*
Christine Lahti
Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and filmmaker. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film '' Swing Shift''. Her other film roles include '' ...And Justice for All'' (197 ...
as Eileen
* Grant Case as Mover
* Casey Hendershot as Mover
* Brett Roedel as Jason
* Brian Roedel as Justin
* Joel K. Berger as Stevie
Production
Filming
The shooting of the film, originally titled ''Hateship, Friendship'', began in November 2012 in
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, Louisiana. The film was shot with
Arri Alexa
The Arri Alexa is a digital motion picture camera system developed by Arri. The Arri Alexa was introduced in April 2010 and was Arri's first major transition into digital cinematography, after previous efforts including the Arriflex D-20 and ...
digital camera
A digital camera, also called a digicam, is a camera that captures photographs in Digital data storage, digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film or film stock. Dig ...
s and Kowa
anamorphic lens
Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm film to create widescreen presentations without sacrificing image ar ...
es.
Michael Benaroya is financing the film.
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 55 reviews, with an
average rating of 6.0/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Kristen Wiig's vibrant performance is almost worth the price of admission -- and it has to be, because ''Hateship Loveship'' doesn't have much else going for it." At
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Ann Hornaday of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' gave the film three stars, praising Johnson's direction.
Sheila O’Malley of
RogerEbert.com
''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...
and
Dana Stevens of ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'' commended Johnson for not veering into
melodrama
A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
.
In contrast, Amy Nicholson of ''
LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...
'' praised the cast, but said the film is "too painful to be uplifting, too private to explore what was clearly child abuse".
Bilge Ebiri
Bilge Ebiri (; born 1973) is a British-born American journalist and filmmaker. His first feature film, a comedy thriller entitled ''New Guy'', was released in 2004.
Early life and education
Ebiri is of Turkish descent.
Ebiri studied at Yale Un ...
in ''
Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...
'' said the film suffers from tonal unevenness and underdeveloped subplots and characters.
Wiig's performance as Johanna received near unanimous praise.
Hornaday wrote Wiig's "cipherlike impassivity at first threatens to make 'Hateship Loveship' fatally inert, but then begins to pay off as the film heads to one of the more startling third acts in recent memory."
She added "we’ve never seen a protagonist quite like Johanna, who on the one hand personifies female self-abnegation at its most domesticated, but on the other embodies the sheer will at its most stubborn. She knows the value of elbow grease, whether she’s redeeming a dirty kitchen floor or even a scruffier human soul."
O’Malley gave the film 4 out of 4 stars and wrote, "In the short story on which the film is based, Alice Munro writes of Johanna: 'It was the rare person who took to her, and she'd been aware of that for a long time.' Wiig has absorbed that character description until Johanna seems as though a role she was born to play. There is not a hint of condescension in her portrayal. You worry for her. You are embarrassed for her. You feel protective; you wince at her openness. You keep discovering how much you have under-estimated her. It's a great performance."
References
External links
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{{Liza Johnson
2013 films
2013 drama films
2013 independent films
American drama films
Films based on works by Alice Munro
Films shot in New Orleans
Films based on Canadian short stories
Films directed by Liza Johnson
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language drama films
Films scored by Dickon Hinchliffe
English-language independent films