Director: Liza Johnson
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 104 minutes
Year: 2013
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld, Nick Nolte
Description: Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld) is a wild teenage girl who orchestrates a romance between her nanny Johanna (Kristen Wiig) and her father Ken (Guy Pearce), who is a recovering addict.
Review: Kristen Wiig is known for her humor, but lately she has shown us her dramatic side. And not without success, because she is fantastic at playing this vulnerable, plain Jane. In “Hateship Loveship” she plays caretaker Johanna, who is appointed to help out the elderly Mr. McCauley with his granddaughter Sabitha. Together with her friend Edith, Sabitha starts a correspondence between Johanna and her estranged father Ken, so Johanna thinks he’s interested in her.
The story is simple and simple stories often make the best movies. The acting by Wiig is very timid and the movie is pretty silent and uneventful. You don’t need much to make a good movie, but “Hateship Loveship” does need a bit more. The start of the film is great, but in the second half it focuses more on Johanna and Ken, instead of Johanna and Sabitha. Eventually the story ups its tempo and a lot happens within a short period of time. Like they wanted to stuff all of it in a certain amount of time. The story wasn’t treated with the respect it deserved.
This all makes “Hateship Loveship” just an average flick, where it could have been so much more. We certainly can’t blame Kristen Wiig.
Rating: 2,5/ 5
