As a big fan of the novels by Kent Haruf, I’m really wary of his work being adapted. Granted I can’t vouch for Hallmark‘s 2004 take on “Plainsong,” but generally speaking, the author’s work hinges on small moments, with heartbreak and drama unfolding in the everyday modulations of regular life. And bringing that to the big screen, or Netflix, where emotional beats are often decorated by performances and score selections and more, could bring the wrong tone to the source material. But Robert Redford and Jane Fonda are going to try and do it right.
Nearly four decades after they last starred together in “The Electric Horseman,” the duo are back for “Our Souls At Night.” Ritesh Batra, the filmmaker behind the melancholy “The Lunchbox,” directs this story about a widow who sparks a connection with her neighbor, who is also single. Here’s the official synopsis:
Based on the novel written by Kent Haruf and adapted for the screen by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (The Fault in Our Stars), Our Souls at Night is set in Colorado and begins when Addie Moore (Jane Fonda) pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters (Robert Redford). Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they’d been neighbors for decades, but had little contact. Their children live far away and they are all alone in their big houses. She seeks to establish a connection, and make the most of the rest of the time they have.
Co-starring Bruce Dern, Judy Greer, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Iain Armitage, “Our Souls At Night” lands on Netflix in 2017.
