LANDLINE is the latest collaboration from Jenny Slate and Gillian Robespierre, following their breakout hit OBVIOUS CHILD. Like OBVIOUS CHILD, it follows a woman at an important crossroads in her adult life, trying to traverse the options before her and to make the decision that she feels best suits her situation. It also explores the ways in which a newly-discovered secret can impact a family.
Set in 1995, the story centers around sisters Dana (Slate) and Ali (Abby Quinn), who discover that their father (John Turturro) is cheating on their mother (Edie Falco). Hesitant to bring the information to light until they have concrete evidence, the pair set about trying to prove his infidelity beyond the shadow of a doubt, all the while struggling to process this revelation in their own ways.
Ali is a high school senior, and though she is in a rebellious phase and is experiencing friction with both of her parents, she feels betrayed by her father’s infidelity. He has abandoned his family and hurt their mother in a truly unconscionable way. To Dana, on the other hand, the situation isn’t quite as black and white. With her own wedding looming before her, she has been questioning whether she has made the right decision in deciding to marry Ben (Jay Duplass), and has been succumbing to her own attraction to Nate (Finn Wittrock), and old college buddy who has suddenly re-entered her life.
The film is fascinating in the way it centers on a secret, and then builds itself around how that secret affects the members of this family - how they see each other, how they see themselves, how it affects their romantic relationships and the possibilities they see for their futures. Each character is well drawn out and fully realized, allowing an examination of a wide spectrum of emotion and reaction.
The cast is incredible, fully embodying their own characters, while also coming together and creating fully realized family unit. We get to see how these people interact with one another, as well as how they play on their own. Slate and Quinn, in particular, are incredible. Seeing how their dynamic as sisters changes over the course of the film, as they struggle to understand their father’s secret and to discover what it means within themselves, is as fascinating as it is elegant. On top of that, they are a hilarious duo. Their chemistry is spot-on and they really conveys the humor of the film.
The 90s setting adds some interesting aspects to the story - most notably how the absence of the internet can making amateur detective work all the more difficult. It also adds some interesting elements to how the characters speak and behave. Never over the top or shoving the 90s down your throat, the decade is certainly present in the film, and that presence adds another interesting layer to the storytelling.
Robespierre has crafted yet another thoughtful and heartfelt comedy that takes the time to dig deep into the lives of its characters. Slate and the rest of the cast do an incredible job of bringing this story to life, leaning into its realistic, yet relatable premise and showing us a bit more about how the beauty and complexity of relationships and family.
