It’s a common tendency for comic actors to stretch themselves by starring in dramas—often ones in which they play decidedly unfunny (and also unhappy) people. Will Ferrell appeared in Everything Must Go and Stranger Than Fiction, and Will Forte will be in Alexander Payne’s forthcoming comedy-drama Nebraska. Another Saturday Night Live alum, Kristen Wiig, now joins their ranks with Hateship Loveship, a brittle character piece that inspires neither hate nor love but does ask you to embrace Wiig’s severely monotone acting choices as the film’s heroine. She doesn’t make any jokes and barely cracks a smile. Unfortunately, the movie (and her performance) proves to be a misfire—a quirky, intriguing one, but a misfire all the same.
Based on an Alice Munro short story, Hateship Loveship stars Wiig as Johanna, a personal caregiver whose latest gig takes her into the orbit of the discontent McCauley family. Hormonal teen Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld) recently lost her mother in an accident, and ever since she’s been living with her grandfather (Nick Nolte). Her failure of a father, Ken (Guy Pearce), has spent some time in jail and is generally a mess, battling drug addiction and trying to find a job.
Johanna is to take care of Sabitha, and her attitude is that the family skeletons—including the circumstances surrounding the mother’s death—aren’t her concern. Emotionally sheltered, almost childlike, Johanna does take an interest in Ken, who writes her a harmless letter thanking her for watching his daughter. Believing he’s a safe person with whom to open up, she writes back a long, personal response, asking Sabitha and her best friend, Edith (Sami Gayle), to mail it for her. Instead, the mean girls send her a fake letter from Ken, starting a bogus correspondence that will trick Johanna into thinking that there’s a romantic spark between the two adults.
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