Hannah (Rebecca Hall) had a deal with her deceased musician husband, Hunter Miles. The deal was you clean out the basement and I’ll swim across the entire lake. As he followed her in the canoe, the best of his songwriting came to fruition. You see, they were going to live in a cabin, be part of the wilderness, write sweet music together, until his untimely death, they did part.
Her voice mail has 200 messages from tabloids trying to get a piece of her to get to a piece of him. But it’s one message from a pop-culture Hofstra Professor, Andrew McDonnell (Jason Sudeikis) who gets her attention. But he doesn’t wait for a call back. Instead he’s already showed up in her picturesque village in Maine, fishing for answers, intent on writing the biography of Hannah’s late husband.
The two initially clash in a charming but believable way. The Professor sees Hunter Miles as one who might be resurrected to a monument among cultural critics…a far cry from the other untimely deaths of those before him…Kurt Cobain and Elliot Smith.
Professor McDonnell speaks of “uncharted territory” which parallels the life that he himself has just stepped into. Could Hannah and Professor McDonnell collaborate? Ghost write? Fall in love?
If it’s another lame Kate-Hudson-esque-rom-com you seek this isn’t that. This is a lovely paced, and peaceful love story.
Blythe Danner and Richard Masur portray the Hannah’s parents ripe with Portland accents and seaport attitudes. The story has New England sensibilities on cue. Even Hannah’s role as the widowed musician’s wife has a throwback feel to Carly Simon’s day…big floppy hats, braless tops and stringy long hair with Ivory scrubbed complexion.
No gimmicks, no red bows, not ensemble cast of characters, this smart little film reminds us what real love, real pain and real loss can equal. For a melancholy Valentine, this is your answer. 3 tiaras