Johanna Parry (Kristen Wiig) is a meek home care giver. After her elderly client dies, she starts a new job taking care of Mr. McCauley (Nick Nolte) and his granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld). Sabitha's estranged father is Ken (Guy Pearce) who lives in Chicago. After going home, he leaves a friendly note to Johanna. When she writes a reply, Sabitha and her friend Edith (Sami Gayle) come up with a catfish scheme to trick Johanna. Ken has no idea and he has an addicted life with girlfriend Chloe (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
The pacing is slow with the quiet performance from Kristen Wiig. It's a subtle character that may be too subtle. The scheme is painful to watch at times because of the grinding pace. The correspondence scenes with Kristen Wiig are not the most compelling. The girls probably have a more compelling story. Their relationship has a lot of possible conflicts. In many ways, Johanna is just a prop for the girls. Then midway in the movie, Joanna takes a journey. At least there is some human interactions, and the movie improves.
There is some good human drama to be had in this movie. Hailee Steinfeld does put in a good performance. The father-daughter-grandfather relationship should be the better emotional material to mine in this story. Kristen Wiig should be more the catalyst. However it does improve enough to recommend.
