''What They Had'' is a 2018 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. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Elizabeth Chomko Elizabeth Chomko (born 1981) is an American playwright, film director, screenwriter and actress best known for the film ''What They Had.'' Early life Chomko grew up in Chicago, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Her family moved to Belgium when she ...

(in her feature directorial debut) and starring

Hilary Swank Hilary Ann Swank (born July 30, 1974) is an American actress and film producer. She first became known in 1992 for her role on the television series '' Camp Wilder'' and made her film debut with a minor role in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (1992 ...

Michael Shannon Michael Corbett Shannon (born August 7, 1974) is an American actor, producer, musician, and theater director. He is an off beat actor known for his on-screen versatility, performing in both comedies and dramas. He became known for his frequent ...

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Forster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019) was an American actor, known for his roles as John Cassellis in ''Medium Cool'' (1969), Captain Dan Holland in ''The Black Hole'' (1979), Abdul Rafai in ''The Delta Force'' (1986), ...

Blythe Danner Blythe Katherine Danner (born February 3, 1943) is an American actress. Accolades she has received include two Primetime Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Izzy Huffstodt on '' Huff'' (2004–2006), and a ...

Taissa Farmiga Taissa Farmiga (; born August 17, 1994) is an American actress. Born in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, she is the younger sister of actress Vera Farmiga. Her numerous appearances in horror films have established her as a scream queen. Farmi ...

, and

Josh Lucas Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer (born June 20, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in various films, including '' American Psycho'' (2000), '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), '' The Deep End'' (2001), '' A Beautiful Mind'' (20 ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

on January 21, 2018, and was released in the United States on October 19, 2018 by

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was ...

Plot

When her

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

-suffering mother, Ruth, wanders into a blizzard on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

, Bridget Ertz travels back to her hometown to help her brother, Nicky, convince their father to put Ruth in a nursing home and face the end of their lifelong love affair. Ruth returns to her home with her family and discussions ensue about her future. Nicky debates with their father, Norbert as he has secured a spot in one of the premiere memory assisted facilities in Chicago. Yet Norbert insists that he alone can provide the best care for Ruth. Nicky looks to Bridget for help, but her time away from her parents makes this a challenge to address. Bridget is dealing with her own immediate family issues as she's never connected with her husband and her daughter, suffering from anxiety, has stopped attending classes at college. Nicky continues to argue with his father over Ruth's future and after a heated discussion he leaves the home. Bridget discusses her father's interference in her life and just then they notice that Ruth has again disappeared from the home. She is discovered quickly, but Norbert finally realizes that Ruth must go to the assisted care facility. Norbert reconciles with his son by visiting his tavern. Shortly thereafter he dies due to a heart attack and Nicky is grief-stricken. Bridget spends time with her mother at her assisted home and sees how well they are treating her. She leaves the facility with a restful smile on her face.

Cast

as Bridget "Bitty" Ertz *

as Nicholas "Nicky" Everhardt *

as Norbert Everhardt *

as Ruth Everhardt (née O'Shea) *

as Emma Ertz *

as Eddie Ertz *

Sarah Sutherland Sarah Jude Sutherland is a Canadian-American actress, best known for her role as Catherine Meyer in ''Veep''. Early life Sutherland was born in Los Angeles, California, to Kiefer Sutherland and his first wife, Camelia Kath. She is the granddau ...

as Mary *

Aimee Garcia Aimee Sandimés Garcia López de Ordóñez (born November 28, 1978) is an American actress and writer. She is known for her television roles as Veronica Palmero on the ABC sitcom ''George Lopez'', Yvonne Sanchez on the CBS period drama ''Veg ...

as Dr. Zoe * Jay Montepare as David * Jennifer Robideau as Rachel

Production

Development

In 2014,

was selected for the

Sundance Institute Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford committed to the growth of independent artists. The institute is driven by its programs that discover and support independent filmmakers, theatre artists and composers f ...

's Screenwriters Lab with a script for the drama film ''What They Had''. In September 2015, Chomko's script was announced as a winner for the

Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting The Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting is a fellowship program founded in 1986 to aid screenwriters. It is administered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. History Gee Nicholl, widow of producer Don Nicholl, worked w ...

. In June 2016, Chomko revealed she would also direct the film from her screenplay.

Albert Berger Albert Berger is an American film producer. Biography He attended Tufts University and the MFA program in film at the Columbia University School of the Arts. He is an executive producer of the HBO series '' The Leftovers''. He and Ron Yerxa are ...

and

Ron Yerxa Ron Yerxa (born May 18, 1947) is an American film producer. He is known for the films '' Little Miss Sunshine'', '' Mr. Russo'', ''Hamlet 2'' and '' Cold Mountain''. Yerxa and fellow producer Albert Berger founded the production company, Bona F ...

were later reported to produce for Bona Fide Productions, along with Bill Holderman, and Andrew Duncan and Alex Saks producing for

June Pictures June Pictures was an American Independent business, independent entertainment production company founded by Alex Saks and Andrew Duncan, and based in Los Angeles, California. It specialized in Filmmaking, film production, and film finance. The co ...

, and Keith Kjarval producing for Unified Pictures.

Casting

On March 17, 2017, it was reported that

, and

had been cast in the film.

's casting was confirmed in August 2017.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began on March 22, 2017 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. On March 28, members of the Amboy

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militi ...

performed a graveside service for a scene in the film on location in

Westchester, Illinois Westchester is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a western suburb of Chicago. The population was 16,892 at the 2020 census. The current Village President is Nick Steker, serving in the special role of acting president after ...

. Conboy Westchester Funeral Home also hosted the cast and crew for filming on March 28. Production was set up in

Hyde Park, Chicago Hyde Park is the 41st of the 77 community areas of Chicago. It is located on the South Side, near the shore of Lake Michigan south of the Loop. Hyde Park's official boundaries are 51st Street/Hyde Park Boulevard on the north, the Midway Pla ...

for more than two weeks, concluding on April 17. Filming wrapped in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on May 2, 2017.

Music

In December 2017, it was reported that Danny Mulhern would compose the film's score. The end credit song "Are You There" is written by

Aoife O'Donovan Aoife O'Donovan ( , ; born November 18, 1982) is an American singer and Grammy award-winning songwriter. She is best known as the lead singer for the string band Crooked Still and she also co-founded the Grammy Award-winning female folk trio I'm ...

, the film's writer and director Elizabeth Chomko and her mother Kate Chomko.

Release

In May 2017,

acquired domestic distribution rights to the film. It had its world premiere at the

on January 21, 2018. ''What They Had'' was initially scheduled for release on March 16, 2018, but was pushed back to October 19, 2018.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

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 based on reviews, with an average of . The website's critical consensus reads, "''What They Had'' finds laughter and tears in its portrait of a family at a crossroads, with writer-director Elizabeth Chomko getting outstanding performances out of a talented cast."

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 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* * * * {{Rotten Tomatoes, m/what_they_had 2018 drama films American drama films Bleecker Street films 2018 directorial debut films 2018 independent films Films about Alzheimer's disease Films set in Chicago Films shot in Chicago Films shot in Los Angeles 2010s English-language films 2010s American films