The indie dramedy The Hollars is the year’s most sure-fire crowd pleaser. And it’s yet another showcase for the best screen actress working today, Margo Martindale. Martindale plays the glue that tenuously holds together an otherwise dysfunctional family. Her husband and two adult sons are each facing both career and personal struggles, and when the mother is diagnosed with a brain tumor, each member of the family starts to crumble.
As the characters face commitment anxiety, job struggles, outright failure and even death, there are lots of laughs. I saw The Hollars in a theater and there were many LOLs from the audience, some a little delayed as the audience processed, “did he really say that?”. For example, an oncologist greets the worried family members with a deadpan “Sorry to be late. I was golfing.”
The actor John Krasinky directs. He and screenwriter Jim Strouse are economical story-tellers. The first few vignettes tells us what we need to know about the family members and their relationships to each other.
The Hollars is really about the journeys of the father and the two sons, with the mom serving as the men’s mirror, sounding board and coach. But Margo Martindale is so good as the woman who is very wise but doesn’t have the need to let everyone know. Every second that she’s on the screen, we feel lucky to be watching her. The toughest job in cinema must film editor on a Martindale movie; it’s gotta be painful to leave any Martindale moments off the screen.
We first noticed Martindale in 2004 as Hilary Swank’s venal mother in Million Dollar Baby. In Justified, she made the character of the ruthless and crafty backwoods crime matriarch Mags Bennett unforgettable. Her heartbreaking performance in Paris je t’aime was similarly indelible. Now age 65, she’s still at her peak.
Martindale is paired with the great character actor Richard Jenkins, who has at least two Oscar-worthy scenes as her befuddled, denial-embracing husband. As one of the sons, Krasinksy is as appealing as usual. Anna Kendrick is perfectly cast as the pregnant girlfriend – being nine months pregnant is a vulnerable position from which to watch your partner figure out his life. In small parts, we are blessed with Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s piercing vibe and Mary Kay Place’s non-nonsense charm. Josh Groban, of all people, is effective carrying off the role of the ever-smiling youth pastor who is dating one of the sons’ ex.
With all its humor, The Hollars is a weeper. Its ending is sentimental, but not maudlin or phony. I usually resist movie sentimentality, but a movie can EARN a sentimental ending with authenticity throughout, a stellar example being The Best Years of Our Lives. That’s the case here.
The Hollars is a wonderful movie to see with a companion. It looks like its theatrical run is going to fade out. But I predict that the word of mouth is going make it into a video hit once it appears on PPV and the streaming/DVD rental services. A gem.