If you were to buy a kit labeled "quirky independent movie," the assembled parts would look like "The Hollars," in which a stellar cast is stranded in a cliché-heavy family dramedy.
John Hollar (played by John Krasinski, who also directed) is a struggling cartoonist in New York, who gets word that his mother, Sally (Margo Martingale), is facing surgery for a brain tumor that has been growing untreated for at least a decade. When John arrives in his Midwestern hometown, he learns that's not the only family issue that's gone neglected: His older brother, Ron (Sharlto Copley), has divorced and is living in their parents' house; their dad, Don (Richard Jenkins), is about to see his plumbing business go under; and his mom's nurse, Jason (Charlie Day), is married to John's high-school girlfriend, Gwen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). News of the ex-girlfriend prompts John's pregnant girlfriend, Becca (Anna Kendrick), to drop her dog-clothing business and take an 8-hour cab ride to be with John.
Krasinski is sure-handed corralling these respectable actors, and some of the scenes (such as when John tenderly shaves Sally's head, pre-surgery) have an honest poignancy. But the good work goes for naught in a hackneyed script by Sundance veteran Jim Strouse ("People Places Things," "Grace Is Gone"), which churns out stale dysfunctional-family tropes by the bucket.
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'The Hollars'
Opens Friday, Sept. 23, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated PG-13 for brief language and some thematic material; 89 minutes.
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