"Laura Dern's starred in stories of marital disaster before - from her portrayal of a no-holds-barreddivorce lawyer in Marriage Story to her turn as a woman on the brink of a marriage breakdown in Big Little Lies. But her new film, Is This Thing On? (out Dec. 19), offers a brighter take on splitsville. Directed and co-written by Bradley Cooper, the movie follows Tess (Dern) and Alex (Will Arnett, also the film's co-writer), parents navigating the beginning of a separation."
""We feel, at times, very frustrated by our paths or bored by our paths, and don't know how to redefine them. We lose patience with ourselves. We think we're supposed to still be chasing the same person we were 20 years ago - or in a partnership, when we first met," the 58-year-old actor says."
Laura Dern has previously played characters confronting marital breakdowns in Marriage Story and Big Little Lies. Is This Thing On? follows Tess and Alex, parents navigating the start of a separation while exploring new identities. Alex stumbles into stand-up comedy while Tess, a retired Olympic volleyball player, returns to the sport as a coach. The film embraces messy relationship realities and shows that the couple's separate paths ultimately converge. The story emphasizes honesty, discovery, and the difficulty of naming why breakups happen, urging grace as people and partnerships are continually redefined. Bradley Cooper directs and co-writes with a lighter tonal approach.
Read at Bustle
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]