R (strong language, sexual content); 95 min.
Melanie Lynskey is the kind of character actress you're always happy to see. Whether it has been in Away We Go, Win Win, Up in the Air or even something frothy like Sweet Home Alabama, you know she'll offer a performance that feels accessible, unexpected and true.
After years of strong supporting work, she steps into a lead role effortlessly in the intimate dramedy Hello I Must Be Going as a recent divorcee who finds herself unemployed, depressed and living with her parents in the cushy suburb of Westport, Conn.
Director Todd Louiso and writer Sarah Koskoff's film may feel like a familiar exploration of a solipsistic 30-something enduring an existential crisis, complete with the requisite indie-rock score, and it does reach some pat conclusions. But it's also both funnier and deeper than you might expect at the outset.
Lynskey stars as Amy Minsky, who has been moping for months in the same ratty T-shirt around her parents' waterfront McMansion. But she finds herself making an unlikely connection with Jeremy (Christopher Abbott of Girls), the 19-year-old stepson of her lawyer father's potential client at an important dinner party. An actor since childhood, Jeremy is more mature than his years, as evidenced by the confidence with which he carries himself and the casual way he dismisses their age difference.
Hello I Must Be Going comes from a sad, honest place. And that's what makes it funny.
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-- Christy Lemire,
The Associated Press
