Fatherhood 'changed the game' for Krasinski's 'Hollars'

PARK CITY, Utah — There's a scene in The Hollars, a new comedy from director and star John Krasinski at Sundance Film Festival, that says it all.

In the midst of a family crisis, Krasinski is pushing his pregnant girlfriend (Anna Kendrick) down a hospital hallway. His face subtly shifts from panic to the lightning strike of a man who realizes he's about to meet his first child. The joy is palpable.

Two years ago, "I had my daughter in February and we started shooting (The Hollars) in April," he says. "And those four months changed the game for me."

Having Hazel, almost 2, with wife Emily Blunt, introduced "a whole new level" of understanding, "that existential crack that happens when you have a kid and the mirror is held up about who are you as a man, as a person, as a member of society. I related to my parents differently, to Emily differently, my friends differently," he says.

In The Hollars, Krasinski plays John, a New York-based struggling graphic novelist unsure if he wants to marry his independently wealthy, expectant girlfriend (Kendrick). Then a call comes: His mother (Margo Martindale) has a brain tumor. John flies home to find his roots in disarray. His brother (Sharlto Copley) has been fired from the family business and moved back in with their parents, his father (Richard Jenkins) is on the verge of bankruptcy and his ex has married his mother's prickly male nurse (Charlie Day).

It's the inexplicable laughter found in The Hollars that rescues us in life's darkest moments, says Martindale.

"When my father died and I was 19, my brother and I were were sitting there behind a curtain at his funeral. Then an automatic curtain just (started moving in front of us)," she says, mimicking the startling electric buzz. "Tim and I sat there and laughed, and could not stop laughing at his funeral. That’s one of those moments."

Krasinski says his new film (which is being shopped for distribution at the festival) hinges on "the reality of a situation. You laugh because you see yourself in it, your mom in it. You connect to the messiness of what family is, and how special your family is and how complicated your family is."

In a crisis, "my first instinct is to be strong for everybody around me," he says. "But everybody who knows me well knows if I have to take a knee for a second, that’s part of life, too. My wife doesn’t expect me to soldier on for her in every single moment. She expects me to try, and we’ll sort of get through it how we get through it."