HATESHIP LOVESHIP
US, 2013, 104 minutes, Colour.
Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Stanfield, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sami Gayle, Christine Lahti, Nick Nolte.
Directed by Liza Johnson.
It is not every film that one sees where the concluding sequence is the central character vacuum cleaning a room. But this is fine for this film, a symbol of ordinariness continuing, but a symbol of hope, a symbol of love.
The film is an adaptation of a short story by Canadian writer, Alice Munro (The Bear Came Over the Mountain, adapted for the screen as Away with Her). The original story was called Hateship, Friendship, Loveship, Courtship, Marriage.
The film is a change for comedian, Kristen Wiig, who has demonstrated the capacity for comedy in such films as Bridesmaids, but also a capacity for drama in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Here she plays Joanna, a rather reserved woman in her 30s, attending elderly people, finding a new job after her client dies, going into a family and serving as some kind of chaperone/guardian for a teenage girl who was lost mother and whose father has been in prison.
The daughter, Sabbath, is played by Hailee Steinfeld, her father, Ken, by Guy Pearce and her grandfather, Bill, by Nick Nolte. The father responds favourably to Joanna who writes a note of appreciation to Joanna but which is intercepted by Sabbath and her schoolfriend, Edith, and they concoct a reply which misleads Joanna into thinking she would be welcome to come to Chicago and be with Ken.
Which is what she does, Ken breaking relationship with Chloe, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and gradually the two falling in love.
While there is a great deal of sentiment, the film is not sentimental, shows people struggling, personal clashes, and Joanna able to support people with her attention and love.
This is an impressive cast which also includes Christine Lahti who works at the local bank and Sami Gayle as the schoolfriend.
1. A pleasing story about ordinary human beings, struggles, love, grief, hope?
2. Adaptation of a short story, the full title being: Hateship, Friendship, Loveship, Courtship, Marriage?
3. The ordinary settings, homes, towns, streets, Chicago, suburbs? The musical score?
4. Joanna’s story, her looking after the lady, the death, tidying the house, prospects of a new job? The bus travel? Asking information in the town? Finding the house, Bill welcoming her, meeting the other members of the family and Edith? Her new room, going to eat hamburgers, her attentiveness to the dynamics within the family, love and hate, listening in on the staircase? Going about her job, tidying the house?
5. Joanna as character, reserved, awkward in manner? Bill and his support? Sabbath and the death of her mother, her father out of prison, wary? Ken, his pleasantness, the note?
6. Sabbath and Edith, their friendship, Edith to post the note, opening it, the girls reading it, composing a letter from Ken, leading Joanna on? Her reading it? The consequences?
7. Joanna’s decision to go to Chicago, thinking Ken would welcome her, the issue of the furniture, her paying for its transfer? Going to Ken, his surprise, her moving in, his taking the money from drugs? Not telling her? Chloe and her visits, her relationship with Ken, as a character, interactions, moving out?
8. Bill, his reaction, the confrontation about the furniture?
9. Ken and Joanna, her working in the apartment, the attraction, the sexual encounter, love?
10. Ken, going to visit Bill, Bills hostility because of the death of his daughter, the issue of the furniture, the return? Ken offering Sabbath the possibility of going to Chicago for the summer? Joanna and her welcoming Sabbath? Sabbath deciding to go, working on the apartment during the summer? Her
happiness? Bonding with Joanna? Grateful to her?
11. Joanna’s collapse, her pregnancy, Ken’s reaction, the cost for hospital? The birth of the baby? Joanna’s response, Ken’s response? The decision to marry, City Hall, Sabbath present, the confetti?
12. At the bank, Joanna withdrawing her money, the discussions with Eileen? Eileen, her twin sons, friendship with Bill, moving in, the boys helping with the furniture, part of the family?
13. Bill, the baby and his delight, peace within the family? Eileen and her delight?
14. Graduation, Edith, talking about her plans, Joanna listening in, her reaction, Joanna saying she had everything she wanted?
15. The film ending with Joanna and the vacuum cleaning, and the prospects for the future, for each of the characters?
