Review: Private Life

It should be the most natural thing in the world, having a baby, and yet it can be the hardest thing to achieve for some couples. Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Richard (Paul Giamatti) are one such couple and they have been chasing, seemingly for many years, in what one character calls "a futile fantasy of fertility."

Rachel is 41, with a new novel about to be published. Richard is 47; known for overseeing an experimental theatre company, he now runs an artisanal pickle company. The bohemian couple's attempts to rectify their childlessness have been a running joke amongst family and friends, though most do lend a sympathetic but inured ear and, in the case of Richard's brother Charlie (John Carroll Lynch), even lend the couple $10,000 for Richard to have a surgery in order to unblock his sperm. Charlie's wife, Cynthia (Molly Shannon), completely disapproves of this gesture - weren't Rachel and Richard going the adoption route - but can't dissuade her husband from what she feels are his enabling ways.

Meanwhile, Sadie (Kayli Carter), Cynthia's 25-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, is feeling adrift and wondering where she'll find the wherewithal to finish college and, more importantly, how to live for her art. Deciding to ditch college mid-semester, Sadie temporarily crashes at Rachel and Richard's East Village apartment. Sadie has always felt a kinship to the couple, telling them that they're the only ones who truly understand her and that she feels closer to them than anyone else in her family. Rachel, who's recently and reluctantly warmed to the idea of having an egg donor, and Richard wonder: would Sadie be willing to give them one of her eggs? Unsurprisingly, this turn of events does not go down well with Cynthia, and an already emotionally complicated situation creeps closer to boiling point.

Writer-director Tamara Jenkins once again does an excellent job of laying bare the pettiness, neuroses, and myopia of upper-middle class white people. These are not always the easiest people with which to spend time or for whom to have sympathy, yet Jenkins' understanding of her characters along with her almost anthropological eye for detail lend an emotional density to the film that keeps viewers riveted to the narrative.

The performances are also significant factors in maintaining the audience's emotional investment in the characters. Everyone is well-cast, with Carter recalling the wise and warm presence of Natasha Lyonne in Jenkins' debut feature, Slums of Beverly Hills; Giamatti brilliantly incarnating another portrait of male frustration; and Hahn vividly embodying Rachel in all her prickly, imperfect glory.

Private Life

Directed by: Tamara Jenkins

Written by: Tamara Jenkins

Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, John Carroll Lynch, Denis O'Hare, Molly Shannon, Kayli Carter, Emily Robinson, Lizzy DeClement