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'Landline'
U.S. Dramatic; 93 minutes.
Romance and relationships take their toll on members of a '90s New York family in "Landline," a hit-and-miss comedy-drama bolstered by a couple of charming performances.
The Jacobs family is riding home from their summer cottage upstate when the movie starts. The parents, Patty (Edie Falco) and Alan (John Turturro) crack jokes with their two daughters — adult Dana (Jenny Slate), who's engaged to the dull-but-nice Ben (Jay Duplass), and teen Ali (Abby Quinn). But the laughs cover up some deep insecurities.
Dana, a layout artist at Paper magazine, is getting cold feet over her engagement, especially when she runs into Nate (Finn Wittrock), a hunky guy she and Ben knew in college. Ali is facing teen pressures of boys and drugs, and battling her parents over school and curfew. Then Ali finds on the family computer evidence that Alan is cheating on Patty.
Director Gillian Robespierre and her co-writer Elizabeth Holm (who shared story credit on Robespierre's 2014 comedy "Obvious Child," which starred Slate) play up the '90s atmosphere of phone booths, "Mad About You" references, grunge music and other period details. (It may the first movie I've seen at Sundance that mentions Hillary Clinton, then the first lady, without mentioning Donald Trump.)
But the humor and heartache don't balance as smoothly as they could, particularly with the underwritten parent roles. Falco and Turturro are great, as always, but their biggest scene together feels too rote.
Slate and Quinn are fantastic, showing the strains and strengths of their sisterly bond as they both try to sort out their feelings about sex, adulthood and family.
– Sean P. Means —
Also showing:
"Landline" screens again at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival at the following times and venues:
• Sunday, Jan. 22, 4 p.m., Redstone Cinema 2, Park City
• Monday, Jan. 23, 9:30 p.m., Rose Wagner Center, Salt Lake City
• Wednesday, Jan. 25, 6 p.m., Library Center Theatre, Park City
• Friday, Jan. 27, 8:30 a.m., Egyptian Theatre, Park City