They Are All After THE ESTATE

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to theatres from writer/director Dean Craig and Signature Films is the story of a family who is about as dysfunctional as they come with THE ESTATE.

Macey (Toni Collette) is running a café that isn’t doing so well. Trying to get a bank loan, sister Savanna (Anna Faris) isn’t much help on the matter. Going home to mom Diane (Patricia French) and sister Ellen (Keyla Mejia), they learn that Aunt Hilda (Kathleen Turner) is about to shuffle off the mortal coil and she suggests maybe sending a card or something.

Savanna gets the idea to go and visit Aunt Hilda and get in her good graces and maybe they can inherit some of the $20 million dollars she is worth. Macey thinks it’s a horrible idea but is talked into it and off they go. Arriving, they bring flowers but instead find bossy cousin Beatrice (Rosemarie DeWitt) with her chef husband James (Ron Livingston) and creepy cousin Richard (David Duchovny).

Aunt Hilda is not exactly the warm cuddly type and seems, well, okay with the girls coming for a visit and that’s putting it nicely. Almost immediately cousin Richard is weirding Macey out and Beatrice is making it clear that she’s in charge and is getting the money. The childhood memories start to fly out in the open and the plotting begins.

During dinner, the conversation gets awkward as Aunt Hilda talks about a dog painting and her earliest memories of awkward romance in high school. That’s when Savannah gets the brilliant idea! She and Macey need to find the long-lost love of her youth and the last chance to get the inheritance.

Relationships are complicated, family makes it impossible!

Collette as Macey is just trying to keep her head above water with the café. When it is obvious that the bank won’t loan her money, she all but gives us. Macey is not confrontational about anything and Collette gives her that melancholia perfectly. Faris as Savanna gets to play the wacky sister who has no filter and ideas, not always the best ideas but she has ideas! Faris is hilarious and her character unpredictable – a combination she is good at portraying.

Duchovny as Richard is uncomfortable and yet hilarious at the same time. He just blurts out whatever is on his mind, no matter how inappropriate, and yet he has his own agenda about the money. Duchovny is the twisted comic relief of the film and he does it well.

DeWitt as Beatrice has dug her heels into the house and her claws into Aunt Hilda. She makes it clear to Macey and Beatrice that nothing and no one is going to get in the way of the money. Livingston as husband James wants to make his wife happy but some of her requests are a bit over the line. Livingston is the male equivalent to Macey in that he goes along to get along.

Mejia as Ellen has a Dungeons and Dragons fixation but it is a way to get her sisters to be a part of her life. She is very funny! French as Diane has a beef with her sister Hilda and fixing it doesn’t seem to be in her life plan.

Now, about Ms. Turner – I just love her in this film. She is pretty much me if I had $20 million dollars and greedy family members. I’d let it all loose and say whatever came into my head just because, lets face it, death is right there. Turner gives that and so much more as only she can and it is so much fun to see her in the film.

Other cast include Gichi Gamba as Geoff, Eric Esteran as the Priest, Kim Baptiste as the Doctor, Billy Slaughter as the Lawyer, Ronald Chavis as the Nurse and Danny Vinson as Bill.

Signature Entertainment is an award-winning production and distribution company. Films such as A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK, HONEST THIEF and RAMS are part of their slate. Upcoming films include Brian Epstein’s MIDAS MAN, Pierce Brosnan’s thriller FAST CHARLIE and John Cena in FREELANCE.

THE ESTATE is a comedy-drama about the complexity of a family. Growing up with cousins and good memories to growing up into adults turning on those memories. Once money comes into play, all bets are off and that make it very clear to one another.

Trying to outwit each other to get close to Aunt Hilda is a joke because it is getting close to that wad of cash that drives them. In the process, the past can’t stay there when each of them is holding a grudge about the way things have turned out thinking that money solves everything.

So, prepare for a gathering around the family issues because its going to get weird.

In the end – where there’s a will there’s a war!