HOLLYWOOD - In "Lola Versus," a quirky comedy about the contemporary dating scene, actress Greta Gerwig demonstrates why she's rapidly becoming the new darling of American independent cinema.
Gerwig portrays Lola, who at almost 30-years-old, is finally getting to wear a wedding dress. She's planning to marry her fiancé Luke, an artist.
But Lola is so consumed by her doctoral thesis and the wedding plans, that she misses major signals from Luke. When they break up, her carefully-planned future comes tumbling down. Lola, guided by her best friend Alice, has to find her way back into the dating scene.
The droll comedy was co-written and directed by Daryl Wein.
"As a male writer, I try to put myself in the shoes of a woman and, obviously, I have a lot of female friends, and I can pick up on a lot of female experience, but we were trying to write what we thought was a necessary portrait of a single woman," Wein says. "We felt like there were all these broadly-drawn romantic comedies like "Sex and the City," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and now "Bridesmaids." They're all funny and glamorous, but they didn't feel as authentic and specific to our reality."
Zoe Lister-Jones, who co-wrote the script, also co-stars as Lola's brutally frank best friend, Alice. "The trick is to always make that person grounded, so that was my challenge. But she is obviously the comic foil, so that's a really fun part to play."
As Lola, Gerwig gets to put a unique twist on the romantic comedy genre.
"It is not a traditional rom-com, but if you tried to put it within that structure, then the person she is always meant to end up with is herself. And then she gets that ending and she falls in love with herself," Gerwig says. "As soon as she gives herself enough time to sit down and breathe, she realizes she is actually okay…that she doesn't actually have to fill any hole in her life that she was so sure was there before.
Gerwig also stars in the new Woody Allen comedy "To Rome With Love."
"Lola Versus" features Joel Kinnaman as the reluctant fiancé. Debra Winger and Bill Pullman play Lola's parents, and Hamish Linklater is her platonic friend since high school. The movie was filmed on location in New York.
Gerwig portrays Lola, who at almost 30-years-old, is finally getting to wear a wedding dress. She's planning to marry her fiancé Luke, an artist.
But Lola is so consumed by her doctoral thesis and the wedding plans, that she misses major signals from Luke. When they break up, her carefully-planned future comes tumbling down. Lola, guided by her best friend Alice, has to find her way back into the dating scene.
The droll comedy was co-written and directed by Daryl Wein.
"As a male writer, I try to put myself in the shoes of a woman and, obviously, I have a lot of female friends, and I can pick up on a lot of female experience, but we were trying to write what we thought was a necessary portrait of a single woman," Wein says. "We felt like there were all these broadly-drawn romantic comedies like "Sex and the City," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and now "Bridesmaids." They're all funny and glamorous, but they didn't feel as authentic and specific to our reality."
Zoe Lister-Jones, who co-wrote the script, also co-stars as Lola's brutally frank best friend, Alice. "The trick is to always make that person grounded, so that was my challenge. But she is obviously the comic foil, so that's a really fun part to play."
As Lola, Gerwig gets to put a unique twist on the romantic comedy genre.
"It is not a traditional rom-com, but if you tried to put it within that structure, then the person she is always meant to end up with is herself. And then she gets that ending and she falls in love with herself," Gerwig says. "As soon as she gives herself enough time to sit down and breathe, she realizes she is actually okay…that she doesn't actually have to fill any hole in her life that she was so sure was there before.
Gerwig also stars in the new Woody Allen comedy "To Rome With Love."
"Lola Versus" features Joel Kinnaman as the reluctant fiancé. Debra Winger and Bill Pullman play Lola's parents, and Hamish Linklater is her platonic friend since high school. The movie was filmed on location in New York.
