The New York Film Critics Series and IVY teamed up to bring you the most recent screening of their National Series. The romantic-comedy, TUMBLEDOWN is a beautiful story with great performances. The movie explores love, loss, hope, and humor filled with hilarious one-liners.
The movie follows Hannah, a widow filled with grief while dealing with the loss of her husband Hunter. Andrew, a writer from New York, comes to her small town in Maine to research more about the man whose music he truly admires and the reason of his death.
The two are brought together by a common bond- honoring Hunter’s memory while sharing his story.
Following the screening, Peter Travers hosted a live discussion with Jason Sudeikis, Blythe Danner, Director Sean Mewshaw, and Screenwriter Desiree Van Til. The discussion included questions from the audience and through video submissions from LA.
Photo Credit: Bridget Laudien
Photo Credit: Bridget Laudien
Desiree is originally from Farmington, Maine. After spending time in LA she moved back to Maine, currently living in Portland. After the passing of someone close to her, she was looking for a place to work through her grief. She was inspired by the film “Before Sunset” and its dialogue. After watching the movie she came home and started writing. Her inspiration for the setting came from growing up in Farmington. She said that this was “Written in celebration of this town I love.”
After many years her story came to life. When casting, she needed to find her Hannah, a woman who could be seen living in the quiet, serene woods by a lake. She liked that Rebecca Hall was robust and tough. She described her as creative, smart, and someone with a warm heart. When finding Andrew, she wanted him to be a sincere fan, which Jason brought to his character.
Blythe Danner discussed that the “charm” of the movie is what attracted her and Jason felt the story was very clever, reminding him of movies from the 1930s.
Photo Credit: Bridget Laudien
An important piece of the storyline is the music that ties the story together. The music was something that was added after filming. Jason discussed how the actors used their playlists as their own inspiration. He explained how the music was “The backbone and story of the script let us all sink our teeth into it from a variety of places.”
One of the most powerful scenes in the movie was filmed on the last day of filming when Rebecca’s character, “Hannah” finds an unexpected surprise left by her late husband.
TUMBLEDOWN is now playing in NYC, LA and will be available Nationwide and On Demand February 12th.
Keep an eye out to see what the next screening will be from The New York Film Critics Series!
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