We’ve seen her stretch her dramatic muscle in a few roles, but Kristen Wiig will head deeper down that path in a couple of films this year. In September her Sundance hit The Skeleton Twins will hit theaters — which we said is her best performance yet — but before that we’re getting a project that premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, Hateship Loveship.
Based on Alice Munro‘s book of short stories, Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, the film comes from director Liza Johnson, who last gave us the acclaimed Return. Wiig leads the story as a woman who begins what she thinks is a relationship with Guy Pearce‘s character, only to learn he’s not on the other side of the exchange. The trailer is fairly compelling, but be warned, as it seems to give a good deal of the plot away. Check it out below for the film also starring Hailee Steinfeld and Nick Nolte.
Johanna Parry (Kristen Wiig) is a profoundly shy, unadorned woman who is hired by Mr. McCauley (Nick Nolte) as a housekeeper and a primary caregiver to his granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld). Despite her outgoing nature, Sabitha carries wounds from the death of her mother years before, complicated by the circumstances of that death for which her grandfather still blames her father, Ken (Guy Pearce), a hapless recovering drug addict with a certain ragged charm. In an act of mean-spirited rebellion, Sabitha uses technology to foster a pseudo-relationship between Johanna and her father, never dreaming of the potential harm to either party. Sabitha doesn’t understand that Johanna is not a demure cut-out, but rather a woman for whom the phrase “still waters run deep” could have been coined. The young girl’s interference provokes Johanna to indulge in something long missing from her life: the dream of a future and a home of her own.
Hateship Loveship hits theaters and VOD on April 11th.