''Our Souls at Night'' is a 2017 American romantic drama film directed by Ritesh Batra and written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. It is based on the novel of same name by

Kent Haruf Alan Kent Haruf (February 24, 1943 – November 30, 2014) was an American novelist. Life Haruf was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of a Methodist minister. In 1965 he graduated with a BA from Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he would late ...

. The film stars Robert Redford, Jane Fonda,

Matthias Schoenaerts Matthias Schoenaerts (; ; born 8 December 1977) is a Belgian actor. He made his film debut at the age of 13 in '' Daens'' (1992), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He is best known for his roles as Filip in ...

, and

Judy Greer Judith Therese Evans (born July 20, 1975), known professionally as Judy Greer, is an American actress. She is primarily known as a character actress, who has appeared in a wide variety of films. She first rose to prominence in a variety of suppor ...

. It had its world premiere at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

on September 1, 2017. It was released on September 29, 2017 by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

. It marked the fourth collaboration between Fonda and Redford, having previously starred in '' The Chase'', ''

Barefoot in the Park ''Barefoot in the Park'' is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The play premiered on Broadway in 1963, starring Robert Redford and Elizabeth Ashley. It was made into a film in 1967, which starred Redford and Jane Fonda. Productions ''Barefoot ...

'', and ''

The Electric Horseman ''The Electric Horseman'' is a 1979 American western comedy-drama film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda and directed by Sydney Pollack. The film is about a former rodeo champion who is hired by a cereal company to become its spokesperson an ...

''. The film received acclaim from critics, who appreciated the film's direction, adaptation from the novel, and performances (especially Fonda), with critics widely praising the casting of Fonda and Redford and their chemistry.

Plot

The setting is the fictitious small

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

city of Holt, where Louis Waters, a widower, and Addie Moore, a widow, have been neighbors for decades but hardly know each other. One night, Addie visits Louis to suggest they spend the night together, non-sexually, to counter their loneliness. Although Louis is initially somewhat hesitant, he soon agrees and they start spending their evenings and nights at Addie's house. At the start of the summer, Addie's son Gene drops off his son Jamie at Addie's house, as his marriage has fallen apart. Jamie spends the entire summer with Louis and Addie, who also adopt a dog for Jamie. At the end of the summer, Gene returns to pick up Jamie and confronts Addie about her relationship with Louis, which he disapproves of because of Louis’ past affair. Addie, however, refuses to break off the relationship. Sometime later, Addie is hospitalized after a fall. Her son Gene attempts to persuade her to move in with him, which Addie initially refuses. However, when she receives a distress phone call from Jamie in the middle of the night, she reconsiders. When she and Louis arrive at the house, they find Gene drunk and he confesses he has always believed Addie blamed him for his sister's death. She decides family must come first and decides to move in with Gene and Jamie. Addie and Louis spend their last night together. Both she and Louis are back to sleeping alone. Louis sends an electric train set for Jamie and a cell phone for her. After getting into bed, she calls him and they start talking like old friends.

Cast

* Robert Redford as Louis Waters * Jane Fonda as Addie Moore *

Iain Armitage Iain Armitage (; born July 15, 2008) is an American child actor. He is known for starring as Sheldon Cooper in ''Young Sheldon'', a prequel to ''The Big Bang Theory'', and Ziggy Chapman in '' Big Little Lies''. In 2018, Armitage received the Youn ...

as Jamie Moore, Gene's son and Addie's grandson *

as Gene Moore, Addie's son and Jamie's father *

as Holly Waters, Louis' daughter *

Phyllis Somerville Phyllis Jeanne Somerville (December 12, 1943 – July 16, 2020) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She is best known for her roles in '' Little Children'' (2006), '' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'' (2008), '' Surviving Fami ...

as Ruth Joyce, Addie's friend * Bruce Dern as Dorlan Becker

Production

On July 7, 2016,

hired Ritesh Batra to direct the film adaptation of

's novel ''Our Souls at Night'', scripted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. Principal photography on the film began on September 12, 2016 in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

, Colorado, and it also was shot in

Florence, Colorado The City of Florence is a Statutory City located in Fremont County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 3,822 at the 2020 United States Census. Florence is a part of the Cañon City, CO Micropolitan Statistical Area and the Front ...

. Filming was completed on November 2, 2016.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on September 1, 2017. It was released on September 29, 2017 on Netflix streaming. The film's release in the United Kingdom attracted some commentary from critics and media observers because the first two words of the title sound (when read aloud) like "arseholes", a minor obscenity in British vernacular, equating to "assholes". This led to calls on Netflix to change the title of the film for UK release; Netflix responded that it had no intention of retitling the film.

Reception

On review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 41 reviews and an average rating of 7.47/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Our Souls at Night'' honors the quiet strength of its source material by offering a simple yet sturdy canvas for two talented veteran leads to bring its story to life."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

assigned the film a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

''Our Souls At Night''
at

* * {{Ritesh Batra 2017 films 2017 romantic drama films Adultery in films American romantic drama films Films about old age Films about parenting Films about widowhood Films based on American novels Films directed by Ritesh Batra Films scored by Elliot Goldenthal Films set in Colorado Films shot in Colorado English-language Netflix original films Films with screenplays by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber 2010s English-language films 2010s American films