September 2, 2019
Hooper (People Who Knew Me) delivers a complex story of love, loss, and redemption in this tearjerker centered on a freak accident. Nate and Annie Forester’s marriage begins to fall apart after their three-year-old daughter, Penelope, is struck dead by a truck driver. While Annie struggles through her grief, Nate is determined to continue as usual after the incident (“It’s better than losing his shit and sobbing like a little girl”). Nate’s lack of external grief causes a rift in their relationship (“How is he so normal?”)—so when Annie stumbles upon an article about the “Tiny House Movement,” in which a person lives in a miniature home with only the absolute necessities of life, she takes the opportunity to get away from Nate, simplify her life, and deal with her depression alone. She leaves only a note saying she is fine and needs some space. As months pass and Annie doesn’t return, Nate starts to succumb to depression and anger. It takes the unlikely intervention of Josh, the driver who accidently killed Penelope, to reunite Annie and Nate and do his best to make amends. Have a box of tissues handy for the ending, in which new beginnings spring out of haunting pasts. This is a delicate, beautiful tale of sadness, recovery, and the role of hope in human resilience.