''Our Souls at Night'' is a 2017 American

romantic drama film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typica ...

directed by

Ritesh Batra Ritesh Batra (born 12 June 1979) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Batra's Hindi-language debut feature film ''The Lunchbox'' premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Rail d’Or (Grand Golden Rail). Batra also won the ...

and written by

Scott Neustadter Scott Eric Neustadter (; born 1977) is an American screenwriter and producer. He often works with his writing partner, Michael H. Weber. The two writers are best known for writing the screenplay for the romantic comedy film ''500 Days of Summer' ...

and

Michael H. Weber Michael H. Weber (born January 13, 1978) is an American screenwriter and producer. He and his writing partner, Scott Neustadter, are best known for writing the screenplay for the romantic comedy film ''500 Days of Summer''. The film is based on t ...

. It is based on the novel of same name by Kent Haruf. The film stars

Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the List of awards and nominations received by Robert Redford, recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award from four nomi ...

Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...

, Matthias Schoenaerts, and

Judy Greer Judith Therese Evans (born July 20, 1975), known professionally as Judy Greer, is an American actress. She is primarily known as a character actress, who has appeared in a wide variety of films. She first rose to prominence in a variety of suppor ...

. It had its world premiere at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

on September 1, 2017. It was released on September 29, 2017 by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. It marked the fourth collaboration between Fonda and Redford, having previously starred in '' The Chase'', '' Barefoot in the Park'', and '' The Electric Horseman''. The film received acclaim from critics, who appreciated the film's direction, adaptation from the novel, and performances (especially Fonda), with critics widely praising the casting of Fonda and Redford and their chemistry.

Plot

The setting is the fictitious small

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

city of Holt, where Louis Waters, a widower, and Addie Moore, a widow, have been neighbors for decades but hardly know each other. One night, Addie visits Louis to suggest they spend the night together, non-sexually, to counter their loneliness. Although Louis is initially somewhat hesitant, he soon agrees and they start spending their evenings and nights at Addie's house. At the start of the summer, Addie's son Gene drops off his son Jamie at Addie's house, as his marriage has fallen apart. Jamie spends the entire summer with Louis and Addie, who also adopt a dog for Jamie. At the end of the summer, Gene returns to pick up Jamie and confronts Addie about her relationship with Louis, which he disapproves of because of Louis’ past affair. Addie, however, refuses to break off the relationship. Sometime later, Addie is hospitalized after a fall. Her son Gene attempts to persuade her to move in with him, which Addie initially refuses. However, when she receives a distress phone call from Jamie in the middle of the night, she reconsiders. When she and Louis arrive at the house, they find Gene drunk and he confesses he has always believed Addie blamed him for his sister's death. She decides family must come first and decides to move in with Gene and Jamie. Addie and Louis spend their last night together. Both she and Louis are back to sleeping alone. Louis sends an electric train set for Jamie and a cell phone for her. After getting into bed, she calls him and they start talking like old friends.

Cast

as Louis Waters *

as Addie Moore *

Iain Armitage Iain Armitage (; born July 15, 2008) is an American child actor. He is known for starring as Sheldon Cooper in ''Young Sheldon'', a prequel to ''The Big Bang Theory'', and Ziggy Chapman in '' Big Little Lies''. In 2018, Armitage received the You ...

as Jamie Moore, Gene's son and Addie's grandson * Matthias Schoenaerts as Gene Moore, Addie's son and Jamie's father *

as Holly Waters, Louis' daughter * Phyllis Somerville as Ruth Joyce, Addie's friend *

Bruce Dern Bruce MacLeish Dern (born June 4, 1936) is an American actor. He has often played supporting villainous characters of unstable natures. He has received several accolades, including the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the Silver B ...

as Dorlan Becker

Production

On July 7, 2016,

hired

to direct the film adaptation of Kent Haruf's novel ''Our Souls at Night'', scripted by

and

. Principal photography on the film began on September 12, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and it also was shot in Florence, Colorado. Filming was completed on November 2, 2016.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on September 1, 2017. It was released on September 29, 2017 on Netflix streaming. The film's release in the United Kingdom attracted some commentary from critics and media observers because the first two words of the title sound (when read aloud) like "arseholes", a minor obscenity in British vernacular, equating to "assholes". This led to calls on Netflix to change the title of the film for UK release; Netflix responded that it had no intention of retitling the film.

Reception

On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 41 reviews and an average rating of 7.47/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Our Souls at Night'' honors the quiet strength of its source material by offering a simple yet sturdy canvas for two talented veteran leads to bring its story to life."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

assigned the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

''Our Souls At Night''
at

* * {{Ritesh Batra 2017 films 2017 romantic drama films Adultery in films American romantic drama films Films about old age Films about parenting Films about widowhood Films based on American novels Films directed by Ritesh Batra Films scored by Elliot Goldenthal Films set in Colorado Films shot in Colorado English-language Netflix original films Films with screenplays by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber 2010s English-language films 2010s American films