"A single dad, played by Mark Ruffalo, is driving his 7- and 9-year-old children, Hal and Harper, home from school. It's been five years since his wife's suicide, and he's finally emerging from the fog of grief and trying to be a present father. "So, who fills up your bucket at school?" he reads awkwardly from a list of questions printed off the internet. "Well, I didn't play with a bucket today ..." an earnestly confused Hal responds. Harper rolls her eyes in silence."
"The scene is Hal & Harper in miniature. Its circumstances are sad but touching - Ruffalo's character, simply named "Dad," is trying to be resilient for his children - but also funny: This man is so out of his depth he's consulting a worksheet titled "Nurturing Bonds: The Power of Daily Questions in Parent-Child Relationships." Also, the 7- and 9-year-olds in the backseat are played by adult actors Cooper Raiff and Lili Reinhart."
Hal & Harper centers on a widowed single father struggling to emerge from grief while parenting his 7- and 9-year-old children. The film mixes sadness and humor through awkward parental attempts at connection, such as reading internet parenting worksheets in the car. The casting choice places adult actors Cooper Raiff and Lili Reinhart as the children, reflecting emotional stunting in grown-up characters. The project grew from an early web series into a broader TV-minded exploration of co-dependent sibling dynamics. Performances from Mark Ruffalo, Reinhart, and Betty Gilpin highlight tender, slice-of-life moments about family resilience and confusion.
Read at Vulture
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]