Adam Sandler feels the love for Dustin Hoffman, Netflix’s ‘ Meyerowitz Stories’
Pairing with Ben Stiller as brothers helps intensify the director’s family narrative
CANNES, FRANCE The Meyerowitz
Stories ( New and Selected) is one of the most beloved movies of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, judging by the glowing reviews and fourminute standing ovation it received at its Sunday night premiere.
“Who times those things anyway?” cracks Adam Sandler, who costars in the tender family comedy with Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. “Why not just say five?”
It was a particularly tearful night for Stiller, who not only reunited with writer/ director Noah Baumbach after While We’re Young and
Greenberg, but also his on- screen father Hoffman ( in Meet the Fockers and its sequel).
“It was incredible to see the outpouring of love for themovie and for Dustin,” says Stiller, sitting with Sandler and Baumbach at the seaside Carlton hotel in Cannes on Monday. “I got emotional watching Dustin get emotional because it was really affecting him. It was special to be able to witness that.”
In the film, which debuts on Netflix later this year, Hoffman plays artistic patriarch Harold Meyerowitz, whose estranged children Matthew ( Stiller), Danny ( Sandler) and Jean ( Elizabeth Marvel) reconnect after he lands in the hospital for an untreated injury and slips into a coma. The prospect of losing their dad brings up complicated feelings for half- brothers Matthew and Danny, who sought Harold’s approval all their lives but always felt inadequate.
Meyerowitz marks a return to dysfunctional family dynamics for the Oscar- nominated Baumbach ( The Squid and the Whale), who recentlymined the lives of narcissistic young New Yorkers in Frances Ha and Mistress America, which he cowrote with girlfriend Greta Gerwig.
“What’s great about family for a narrative and character is that by definition, they’re all parts of the same person, so you have these built- in Venn diagrams of where they’re similar and where they’re different,” Baumbach says. Casting Stiller and Sandler, “who have been compared to each other and grown up in the movie business together, I thought, ‘ How exciting, to have them represent these two brothers.’ ”
The feelingwasmutual for the comedic actors, who have been friends for more than two decades but have only briefly appeared on screen together, in Happy Gilmore ( 1996).
“I remember when my father passed away, Ben wrote me this amazing note,” Sandler says. “He knew how much I loved my dad. We’ve always been connected, but this is the first time that we got to work this many days in a row together, and get closer and closer.”
Meyerowitz has earned Sandler some of the best reviews of his career, with Deadline suggesting that he could be an awards contender. The funnyman appreciates the support, but doesn’t intend to dive headfirst intomore dramatic roles.
“If Noah has an idea, I’m in,” Sandler says. “I love making the movies I get to make,” most recently a string of critically panned comedies for Netflix.
The streaming giant has been a hot topic at Cannes, whose organizers recently announced that movies without a French theatrical release won’t be eligible to compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or award starting next year. The Netflix logo was booed at a Sunday screening of Meyerowitz, although Baumbach says he hasn’t paid much attention to the backlash.
“I can’t control any of that,” he says. “I make ( films) the way I want to see them and then it’s up to everybody else to see them the way they want to. But I do believe in the theatrical experience, passionately. I think it’s singular.”