New Delhi, Feb 14 (PTI) Nicholas Stoller, the director of hit romantic comedies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “The Five-Year Engagement”, says he has a fascination for love stories as they are harsh, raw but also sweet.
Stoller, whose latest film is the Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell-starrer “You’re Cordially Invited”, said he has been “obsessed” with love stories since he was a child.
“I love ‘love stories’. I like them. I think it’s always my favourite (genre). Whenever I’m watching a TV show, if there’s not a love story, I kind of end up turning it off.
“I’ve always been the most obsessed since I was like a kid… I think I’m fascinated by love stories and what makes people fall in love, what makes people fight about love, all of that stuff… They’re honest, they’re kind of harsh and real, but they’re also sweet. And so that’s always my kind of north star,” Stoller told PTI in an interview.
The filmmaker said he isn’t a fan of a “schmaltzy movie” with a lot of crying and melodrama.
“There’s nothing wrong with that but that’s not what I like… I think that the movies that I love, that I watch over and over again are ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘Annie Hall’ because they’re honest about love. They tend to be very much like ‘Broadcast News’,” he added.
“You’re Cordially Invited”, which currently streams on Prime Video, revolves around two weddings that are accidentally scheduled at the same small island hotel on the same day.
Witherspoon portrays Margot, a reality TV executive organising her sister’s wedding. Ferrell is Jim, a widowed father preparing for his daughter’s wedding. Comedic conflicts arise when they strive to outdo each other, each determined not to move.
“The primary relationship is between Will and his daughter and Reese and her sister, but then it also is a story about two people finding each other a little bit in midlife and falling in love,” Stoller said about the movie.
It was a couple years ago when Stoller thought about making a comedy about a double booked destination wedding. But at the time, he didn’t have much to play with the story and so he put the project on the shelf.
“Two years ago, I was like, ‘Oh, I wanted to do a movie for Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon.’ And I was like this is a kind of high concept that could really work for them. And so I kind of built out the characters and approached them and pitched them the movie. And they both said yes. And then I developed the movie for them and we shot it. It kind of went pretty quickly from there.” According to Stoller, all of the comedy in his movies comes from the emotional journey of the characters, whether it was in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, about a heartbroken man who takes a Hawaiian vacation and finds love there, or “The Five-Year Engagement”, which followed a couple whose engagement keeps getting delayed by life’s unexpected challenges.
And he followed a similar approach with “You’re Cordially Invited”.
“Everything comes from the emotional journey of the characters. And without that, the comedy won’t work. I spent most of the time working on the script. I come up with funny ideas and funny set pieces and all of that, but really I’m trying to figure out like what is the movie about? What are these characters going through? What’s their emotional experience? “And then making sure every set piece is connected to that emotional experience,” he added.
Asked about the challenges of making a comedy in the era of reels, Stoller said he has chosen to stay off the internet.
“I don’t look at what people say. It’s kind of my solution to it. I also try to just stick to the characters, and try to tell as honest a story as possible. I’m never just making fun of people just to make fun of people because I think that’s where you can get into trouble. But it’s never been my approach, if you were to look at any of my movies.
“That’s not to say every joke has aged perfectly, but everything is coming from characters. That’s kind of the way I’ve always approached my movies,” he said.
“You’re Cordially Invited” also stars Geraldine Viswanathan, Meredith Hagner, Jimmy Tatro, Stony Blyden, Leanne Morgan, Rory Scovel, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Ramona Young, Jack McBrayer and Celia Weston.
Ferrell and Witherspoon have also produced the movie alongside Stoller, Conor Welch, Lauren Neustadter and Jessica Elbaum. PTI RB RB BK BK
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