‘Private Life’
It’s been 11 years since Tamara Jenkins last made a movie, but her The Savages was a funny and biting dramady that got Laura Linney an Oscar nomination in 2007. If Private Life can do the same for its star, Kathryn Hahn, it will only be justice served. Hahn plays Rachel, a writer living in New York City’s East Village with her husband, Richard (Paul Giamatti), and they’re going through hell trying to conceive. Jenkins’ wise and knowing film pulls the audience right into the couple’s frustrations and fears and gallows humor as they bounce between hormone injections and bad news and their own broken hearts. It’s definitely not light subject matter, but Jenkins and her cast never feel like they’re out to inflict pain. This is as honest a story as Jenkins can tell about a pair of good people trying to keep each other sane as they go through this process, and sometimes even that’s too much to ask. Just a great story told with heart and just the right amount of laughter.