(courtesy IMP Awards)
SNAPSHOT
Two ex lovers, Bill (David Duchovny) and Willa (Meg Ryan) get snowed in at a regional airport overnight. Indefinitely delayed, Willa, a magical thinker, and Bill, a catastrophic one, find themselves just as attracted to and annoyed by one another as they did decades earlier. But as they unpack the riddle of their mutual past and compare their lives to the dreams they once shared, they begin to wonder if their reunion is mere coincidence, or something more enchanted. What Happens Later is directed by American actress turned filmmaker Meg Ryan, making her second feature film after directing Ithaca (2015) previously. The screenplay is written by Steven Dietz, Kirk Lynn, and Meg Ryan. It’s produced by Jonathan Duffy, Laura D. Smith Ireland, Kristin Mann, and Kelly Williams. (courtesy First Showing)
Like a great many other people, I adore Meg Ryan in rom-coms.
She is that eternally wonderful blend of sassy and sweet with added vulnerability, and she adds some robust emotional energy to roles that quickly morph from the usual rom-com gal-meets-a-guy to something far more complex and wholly rewarding and yes, heartwarming, to watch.
I have loved her in You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally to name just three, and now she’s back, directing as well, in What Happens Later which looks to have a great deal of charm and later-in-life second chance vibes to it.
It looks delightful and well worth a trip to the cinema …
What Happens Later premieres in US cinemas on 13 October; no Australian release atm.