directed by Michael Showalter; written by Nick Antosca; starring Anne Hathaway, Josh Hartnett, and Dakota Johnson
Plot Summary
A lonely author is hired by the husband of Verity, an acclaimed author who sits around all day, to finish Verity's acclaimed book series. The kind of movie that's better alone and stoned or drunk with a crowd. Real "we have Gillian Flynn at home" energy.
Characters
Verity (Hathaway) - acclaimed author who lost a child and has recently been in a debilitating accident leaving her unable to speak or move on her own
Lowen (Johnson) - A middling writer who just lost her mother and needs money
Jeremy (Hartnett) - Verity's husband, an accomplished man who works somewhere, dealing with all the tragedy
Cory - Lowen's agent and absolutely nothing more, not a love interest nor a gay POC best friend who is just looking out for her
Crew - Verity and Jeremy's child, doing pretty well after his sister died in front of him and his mother is comatose
Anna - Verity's nurse and general person who exists
Setting
New York City - where people are met and deals are made and bicyclists are filled with blood that pop like balloons when struck
Agent's office - where deals are made
Sad bastard apartment - where Lowen lives with eviction notices and her mother's hospital bed
Verity and Jeremy's house - a Playboy-mansion type forest retreat with wood and stone and stark angles everywhere
Verity's office - big curved desk and papers all over and files that hold dark secrets and a jump drive with an autobiography
Bavarian restaurant - it has food
Favorite Scenes
Bicycle splat - who doesn't love a meet cute where our heroine gets splashed with gore and another person gives them the shirt off his back. Then they realize the meeting they are both late for is the same.
"What are you doing? Making a big pile of wood?" - Chef's kiss dialog expertly delivered by Johnson with the air of interest to rival the wood
Her birthday celebration - It's Lowen's birthday and Jeremy wants to make it special, so he gives her free reign to dig into his wife's closet so she can pick the same kind of dress Verity wore the night her and Jeremy met. And boned. And eat Bavarian.
Child playing with knife - When you are questioning a child about their mother's ability to walk and speak, maybe take the knives away from that child. Especially if they are prone to eating knives. We don't do that in this house, Crew.
Incidentally, I learned they named the kid "Crew" because he was conceived on a boat. I dunno why the dead kid was named "Harper" if she was Crew's twin. In the book there's another kid that's Harper's twin and they had Crew later, but I'm not reading that shit.
"I'm gonna take it from you, you selfish Machiavellian cunt." - Just the kind of lines you want to hear in this tale of people so fucked up this is a normal thing to say to a comatose person. I cheered and clapped and cried as the audience around me hugged, and we all agreed this was the best time for the THC edible to have kicked in.
Discussion Questions
If you met a handsome stranger over the corpse of a bike messenger, would you go to your meeting right after? What would you do?
If a reclusive author's family invited you to their secluded, isolated, completely alone home and invited you to live as the author for a few weeks, would you bang the husband and parent the kid?
What are the appropriate times for children to eat knives?
If you found out a stranger was lying about their entire existance and had gone to great lengths to trick everyone around them, would you fuck with that crazy pants person?
If you held up a ruse for months that you were in a waking coma, would you pop out as if the waiter was walking away and you just remembered you wanted extra ketchup on your hamburger?
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