Writer/director Alan Hruska doesn’t hold back on melodrama with Reunion, the story of a group of Yale alumni and members of a secret undergrad society of would-be world-changers who get back together on the tenth anniversary of a friend’s passing to bare their souls and air their grievances in the shiny conference room of NYC lawyer Jake (Brett Cullen). Overflowing with self-serious Big Ideas, Hruska’s ensemble film tackles, via its characters’ confessions and bickering, issues of love, faith, happiness, success, aspirations, self-worth, and the feasibility of change, a Big Chill-ish enterprise whose serious intentions aren’t enough to compensate for the two-dimensionality of its stock archetypes, nor for the fact that their discussions about these topics – all of which are laced with regret, jealousy and longing – generally amount to a lot of hot air. Hruska intends for his material to be insightful but undercuts his grave tone with hoary, histrionic situations and revelations at far too many turns, the only respite from the proceedings’ distinct Psychology 101 feel coming via corniness such as an angry confrontation that devolves into a food fight.
The reunion revolves, at least in part, around a Maguffin: a mysterious letter written by Jake’s deceased wife Janie, who at the time of her death wanted her old friends to reconnect, and with whom everyone slept at one point or another. Sexual tensions consequently run high, though once these Yalies sit down to partake in the secret society’s “course” – which involves a day spent going over bios, and another spent ripping each other to shreds – the participants’ various, equally mundane hang-ups and gripes prove just as contentious. Eamon (Christopher McDonald) is a womanizing reporter angry over having lost Janie to Jake. Emily (Cynthia Stevenson) is an author bitter about her lack of financial success and her faltering marriage to alcoholic Barnaby (Jamey Sheridan), whose addiction has prevented him from living up to expectations. Sadie (Amy Pietz) is a Hollywood agent who loves Jake. Lloyd (David Thornton) is a Trump-esque billionaire who loves power. And Saul (Josh Pais) is a do-gooder doctor who clings to his Jewish faith, does charity work, and once had a torrid affair with Emily. They’re all, to a tee, dull as dirt.
Hruska’s actors try to make the most of these thinly conceived characters, yet Reunion never feels like more than a rough sketch, a template for real psychoanalytic drama in which talking points are raised but never remotely investigated, much less resolved. The writer/director makes sure to provide some measure of closure to each of his intellectuals’ plights, but it’s of a shallow sort, in large part because their dilemmas aren’t substantially conceived. Why, specifically, do all of these people romantically idealize Janie? Why did Emily cheat on Barnaby, and why did he turn to the bottle? Why did Jake choose to nurture Janie when everyone else so eagerly used her and then cast her aside? These and a multitude of further questions plague Reunion to the point that its end-game bombshells and reconciliations seems only slightly more thought-out than your average soap opera plotline – though, unlike most those daytime stories, at least Hruska’s film has the benefit of featuring a truly accomplished scene-stealer, Christopher McDonald, to lay the ham on thick.
