Hateship, Loveship (2013)

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Liza Johnson

Cast: Kristen Wiig, Hailee Steinfeld, Guy Pearce, Nick Nolte

Running time: 104 minutes

Based on an Alice Munro short story, Hateship, Loveship is the story of Johanna Parry. After the old lady she had been working for passes away, Johanna finds another job in the home of Mr. McCauley, an older man who had been taking care of his teenage granddaughter, Tabitha, after her mother died in an accident. Johanna finds herself attracted to the girl’s father, Ken, an ex-con who was visiting his daughter. Noticing the attraction, Tabitha and her best friend decide to play a nasty trick and to write loving messages Johanna thought were from Ken. Not used to these kinds of feelings, Johanna will go overboard in her demonstrations of love.

When I first saw the poster of this film and when I noticed it starred Kristen Wiig, I first though it was a comedy. How wrong I was there. This is clearly a drama. In going against her typical casting, Wiig showed some great range. She shows the necessary amount of restraint in her portrayal of Johanna, a woman having a hard time breaking out of her shell. She was absolutely believable; the transformation was amazing. Guy Pearce is also very good as Ken, a very flawed man with some goodness buried deep inside him.

The pace of Hateship, Loveship is very slow; this is not a wild ride, easily consumed and thrown away afterwards. It took some time, but, by the end of it, I was fully immersed in the story. And, my appreciation for it has been growing since then. A very subdued performance by Wiig and a very compelling story made for a good evening of movie-watching for me. This was a nice surprise.

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