Taglines: Get ready to fall.
In the Land of Women centers on a Los Angeles screenwriter who heads to the suburbs of Michigan to recover from a breakup. Once in the Midwest, he begins having a relationship with a mother and daughter (Meg Ryan and Kristen Stewart) who live across the street.
For as long as he could remember, Carter Webb (Adam Brody) had been falling in love with women. And for as long as he could remember, he’d been searching for the right one. He found everything he was looking for in Sophia (Elena Anaya) and for a little while he was happy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be.
When Carter is dumped by Sophia in a North Hollywood coffee shop, he sees his entire life flash before his eyes. Heartbroken and depressed, Carter escapes Los Angeles, heading across the country to suburban Michigan to care for his ailing grandmother (Olympia Dukakis). An eccentric and complicated personality, Grandma offers Carter a uniquely different perspective on life and especially death.
Soon after his arrival, Carter stumbles into the lives of the family living directly across the street, Sarah Hardwicke (Meg Ryan), the mother of two daughters: Paige (Makenzie Vega), a precocious, effervescent eleven-year-old and her older sister Lucy (Kristen Stewart), an angstridden teenager. While Sarah faces her own personal crisis, Lucy wrestles with the fears that define her. Through his relationships with these women, as well as his grandmother, Carter begins to discover that what felt like the end was really only just the beginning of his adventure…
About the Story
In his directorial debut, writer Jonathan Kasdan presents a personal and poignant story about the serendipitous way in which people’s lives can intersect at the most critical times. Guided by the formidable words of wisdom dispensed to all writers, write what you know, Kasdan found shifting gears from the daily rigors of writing for television to penning a feature-length screenplay, became an act of following his own heart and focusing on his love for film.
Kasdan explains, “I’ve been inundated with movies since my earliest memories. Films are my passion. It took a couple of scripts for me to realize that what I had to do was write something that was, among other things, fun. What I ended up writing was far more dramatic and more personal that I had intended.” He continues, “When I sat down to write a movie about what I really loved, it seemed obvious that what I really loved were women, being around them and trying to figure out my relationship with them.”
Carter Webb’s adventure is one of self-discovery . where often the bumpy road traveled is more illuminating than the final destination you arrive at. “The movie is really about a guy who is in the process of falling in love with his life. When we meet Carter,” Kasdan says, “he’s struggling, conflicted and a bit lost. At the end of the movie, his changes are very subtle as he’s had a couple of those moments where he comes into contact with the overwhelming thrill of the journey of his life.”
The script’s ability to connect with those defining moments of everyday life was what attracted producers Steve Golin and David Kanter to the screenplay. “This is a movie about humanity,” says Kanter. “It’s fresh and original and the dramatic questions posed are very relevant and couched in real language . the dialogue is funny and smart. You’re always hoping to find material that will leave an impact on the audience.”
For Golin what makes In the Land of Women such a compelling story, is people colliding at a time when everything in their lives, everything they thought they controlled, is slipping through their fingers, and in that moment, find allies in each other. “The movie spans a very brief period of time. Both Carter and Sarah are going through their own personal crises and for this short window they develop a very poignant bond with each other. It’s about two people at the right time at the right place.”
Adam Brody adds “It’s a really positive movie that’s in love with life, in love with people, and in the end, appreciates the everyday moments of life. It’s about relationships and love, and all those things intersecting.”
In the Land of Women is a glimpse inside a female-centric world from a young man’s perspective. What continually caught the actors off-guard was Kasdan’s uncanny ability to articulate a woman’s perspective with such sensitivity.
“It’s the mystery of the movie. How does he know about all these relationships?” muses Meg Ryan. “The tension in the family, all this unspoken stuff and how it plays out and how it affects everything about each of their lives. All the things that are not said and that finally need to be said, and that’s the great catharsis of the movie, is when things are finally expressed and they can finally be healed.”
Olympia Dukakis offers, “Jon is so open, he doesn’t attempt to be something he’s not. He’s a very sensitive, vulnerable guy who has tremendous enthusiasm. I think he’s had his own unique experiences with women and understands the gravity of some relationships, the damage that can be done and the joy that can be there.
Kanter suggests where Kasdan may have started to learn about the psychology of the opposite sex. “Jon told us a story about when he attended this very renowned private school in West Los Angeles and apparently wrote an advice column for the girls who attended this fancy girl’s private school in Brentwood. He was giving advice to high school girls while being a teenager himself. It’s part of his charm. He has an innate ability to observe human behavior and then to write about it.”
The cast is quick to weigh in with praise regarding Kasdan’s talent in his directorial debut. “Jon blows me away. He’s so calm,” says Adam Brody. “It’s his first movie but you’d think it was his tenth. He knows every aspect of a movie shoot, not just about setting up shots, but also different ways to light, work with actors.”
Makenzie Vega adds, “Right before a scene, Mr. Kasdan comes over to me and reminds me about little things with my character, he helped me so much. He’s so cool!” The coolness factor was one admired by all the cast. “I think Jon is unbelievable and just so passionate about what’s he’s doing,” says Kristen Stewart. “He wrote the script and you can ask him any question and he can tell you every thing you want to know. It’s like he is every character!”
“I think audiences are really going to enjoy the humor in this story,” continues Dukakis, “seeing all these characters at different ages grappling with love and love’s disappointments and expectations. I suppose the passages of life are full of contradictions – they have joys, pains, disillusionment and wonder.”
What is the director’s ultimate hope for what audiences will experience? “I feel like I’ve had that a couple of times where I’ve been able to catch myself in a moment and think ‘This is the best, being alive!’” says Kasdan. “It comes back to a Woody Allen quote from Deconstructing Harry where he’s visited by the ghost of his old friend who’s just died. He’s in the jail cell and he says to the ghost, ‘I know it sounds trite, but I just want to be happy’ and the ghost says ‘To be alive is to be happy. Take it from me.’ That has stuck with me forever and it has become one of the formative pieces of dialogue in my life.
“This film speaks to this idea that is powerful in my life, which is some sort of synchronicity existing in the universe where events seem to come together at the strangest moments, and sort of work together. Hopefully that’s what audiences will see . that kind of magic.”
Continue Reading and View the Theatrical Trailer
In the Land of Women (2007)
Directed by: Jonathan Kasdan
Starring: Adam Brody, Kristen Stewart, Makenzie Vega, Elena Anaya, Meg Ryan, Danielle Savre, Gia Mantegna, Kelsey Keel, JoBeth Williams, Olympia Dukakis, Elise Gatien, Christine Danielle
Screenplay by: Jonathan Kasdan
Production Design by: Sandy Cochrane
Cinematography by: Paul Cameron
Film Editing by: Marty Levenstein, Carol Littleton
Costume Design by: Trish Keating
Set Decoration by: Louise Roper, Erin Boyd
Art Direction by: Margot Ready
Music by: Stephen Trask
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, thematic elements and language.
Distributed by: Warner Independent
Release Date: April 20, 2007
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