In “The Good House,” Sigourney Weaver plays Hildy, a prickly, well-born Realtor in a wealthy New England town. Hildy is a mother and grandmother, and her family has become concerned with her drinking. When they stage an intervention, the beginning of which you can see in this exclusive clip, Weaver’s Hildy breaks the fourth wall, and tells the audience about the players.
“Let me introduce everyone first,” Hildy says to the camera. And then she does, peppering her comments with asides: “This is my ex-husband, Scott, to whom I pay alimony. Even though he left me for a man after 22 years of marriage.”
“The Good House,” an acquisition title produced by Amblin Partners, will premiere as a Gala Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 15. Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky co-directed the film, and also adapted Ann Leary’s 2013 novel of the same name with Thomas Bezucha. Forbes and Wolodarsky, partners in work and in life, previously collaborated on such films as the 2014 Sundance breakout “Infinitely Polar Bear” and the comedy “The Polka King,” starring Jack Black, which also premiered at Sundance in 2017, and was acquired by Netflix. This is their second time co-directing a feature film (“The Polka King” was the first).
In “The Good House,” Kevin Kline co-stars with Weaver — in a reunion of the 1993 comedy “Dave” — as Hildy’s ex Frank, who may or may not want to get back together. Morena Baccarin (“Homeland,” “Deadpool”) plays Rebecca, a mysterious woman who’s new to town. Rob Delaney, David Rasche, Beverly D’Angelo, Paul Guilfoyle, Kathryn Erbe, Kelly Aucoin, Georgia Lyman, Rebecca Henderson and Molly Brown fill out the rest of the cast.
And how will that intervention go? As Hildy says, “Well, if we’re really going to do this, I need a drink.”
Michael Tompkins/Universal Pictures