Hildy Goody (Sigourney Weaver) is a highly regarded New England broker, although her grip on the competitive market is loosening. A glass of wine is clutched in her other hand, causing great concern to her family. She managed to keep everything together despite a few hiccups. As she rekindles an old romance and grows more secretive with her escalating addiction to alcohol, she is forced to confront her inner demons and family secrets or risk losing everything.
“This is the story of an elderly woman, from her point of view, who is thankfully very funny, who has been at the top of her game, worked hard all her life and took care of everyone around her. We suddenly meet Hildy at a time when her husband dumped her for a man, her children have sent her to rehab and her company is being taken away. We see her in an extreme circumstance,” Weaver explains.
In addition to Weaver in the cast of the good house are Kevin Kline, Morena Baccarin, Rob Delaney, David Rasche, Rebecca Henderson, Molly Brown, Kathryn Erbe and more. It is directed by Maya Forbes and Wallace Wolodarsky, who co-wrote the screenplay with Thomas Bezucha, based on the bestseller by Ann Leary.
Rooting for Hildy Goody
As Weaver explained, the audience is pushed to a point in Hildy’s life where we see her unraveling from the top of her game. We know a little of her history and how proud she is of her success and her ability to provide for her family. She has a wry sense of humor and speaks directly to us, allowing her to really resonate and share secrets. She is a brilliant and charming woman that we want to see win. We can’t help but support for her, especially with what’s at stake.
“We really love that she’s coming over all this ageism, and all these forces that she thinks are against her. In the course of that, you meet the wonderful Kevin Kline, who plays a handsome garbage man, and I can relate to him.” reunite as an actor and in the story,” Weaver said. “It’s a comedy, but there’s definitely another side to it, because Hildy’s best friend has always been alcohol. I think as the story progresses, she realizes that this isn’t That interested me, both her downward slope and her relationship with alcohol, and at which point it stops being a friend and becomes something she needs to pay attention to.”
Balancing comedy and drama in The Good House
Hildy consistently battles addiction, among other serious themes from her past that serve as catalysts. The stakes include removing her access to her grandchild if she is unable to recover, financial peril if her business slips, and even her sanity. Despite all this, her sense of humor is preserved and she offers room for relief, but without diminishing the seriousness of her situation.
“Hildy is very funny,” Weaver noted, “and she’s especially charming after she’s had a few drinks. You see this woman giving it all, restraining herself, then you see her go home, kick off her shoes, undo her bra and open a bottle of Pinot Noir and just have a few drinks. She says she feels more like herself after three drinks. She’s incredibly good company, especially when she’s had a few drinks and doing things she can’t remember. Skinny dipping, driving and that sort of thing.”
Weaver went on to explain how they further find that balance between drama and comedy through how she confides in audiences. “She turns to us and says, ‘Can you believe what’s happening in my life?’ And so we sit at the bar with her for a bit, if you want, have a drink with her for a while. It really captivated me like the actor who played her. At some point I realized I couldn’t encourage Hildy to drink because it wasn’t working for her anymore, and that was tough. That’s the hard part of the story. One of the things that was so touching was that when she finally went into serious rehab instead of sort of pretending, we had a scene where a lot of the people in the meeting were guys from the crew that I kind of had chosen by hand. They all appeared sober. They had been sober for about 30 years… it was a very meaningful movie for me, and a great story about an older woman.”
the good house comes to us from Lionsgate and is only available in theaters on September 30, 2022.