'The Lovers' makes the case for experience over youth

To watch "The Lovers" is to be treated to some high-caliber performances by a couple of experienced pros. First, you've got Debra Winger, who's just as effortlessly magnetic as she was 35 years ago in "An Officer and a Gentleman." Then there's Tracy Letts, the Pulitzer-winning playwright, in his first, criminally overdue lead screen role. (He's landed many main parts in plays, by the way, winning a Tony in 2013 for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.")

The actors are so good, playing a married couple who have become little more than roommates, that they turn a nearly wordless scene, sitting side-by-side on a couch drinking wine, into a funny, awkward, sad standout moment.

The movie's writer-director Azazel Jacobs is keenly aware that you won't get that from just any actor.

"It's not really silent, because we're hearing and we're feeling what they're thinking," Jacobs said during a recent visit to Washington . "There's this whole other dialogue that we're seeing with their eyes, with their movements, and it's even louder than conversation."

"The Lovers" is a romantic comedy but it's an atypical one, because its leads are 61 (her) and 51 (him). Much has been made of an actor's expiration date in Hollywood and how few roles are available for performers over 40, especially women. But, watching "The Lovers," you start to wonder why anyone would value youth over (acting) experience.

That question only becomes more perplexing when you think about Blythe Danner and Sam Elliott in the lovely 2015 romantic drama "I'll See You in My Dreams" or Lily Tomlin's Golden Globe-nominated performance that same year as the prickly main character in "Grandma" or Sally Field headlining last year's oddball comedy "Hello My Name Is Doris." (For an example of what not to do, please refer to the way the new release "Snatched"utterly wasted Goldie Hawn's comedic talents, giving Amy Schumer all the jokes and leaving Hawn with nary a punchline.)

In "The Lovers," Winger and Letts play Mary and Michael. The spark has long ago left their marriage and both have nondescript, unfulfilling jobs. So to spice things up, husband and wife are secretly seeing other people. Mary is covertly hanging out with the novelist Robert (Aidan Gillen) and Michael is sneaking around with the dancer Lucy (Melora Walters). Robert and Lucy are both tired of being consolation prizes, so Mary and Michael have each promised that a divorce is imminent.

But, just when it seems like the marrieds might broach the subject of separation, they fall back in love - or at least back in lust. Suddenly they're cheating on their lovers with their spouses. A lot. As Winger admitted during a recent sit down with Stephen Colbert, "There's so much sex."

There is, though much of it's punctuated with humor. When the couple first rekindles their relationship, for example, Michael has just gotten out of the shower and has a towel wrapped unflatteringly around his ample belly. Later he's trying to be seductive but forgets he has a toothbrush in his mouth. It might come across as comical but, for Letts, it was simply honest.

"It's just real life," the actor said. "Real life doesn't happen the way it happens in the movies. It happens over Chinese food or with toothpaste in your mouth. I think that's why it's funny ... It's just human beings acting like human beings."

The premise is reminiscent of the old comedies of remarriage, like "His Girl Friday" and "The Awful Truth," and Jacobs has a certain nostalgia for the past. No movie has influenced him more than "The King of Comedy," he says, and he puts Charlie Chaplin on a high pedestal. (That partially explains his spare use of dialogue.)

He also values the good old days in another way: He instituted a rule that the cast and crew put away their phones during filming. Coincidentally, Letts had a similar policy on his last play.

"If you're not working and you're not engaged in the scene, I want you dreaming about it or imagining it or angry about it or whatever your feelings are about the work," Letts said.

"It's like creating a period piece in your life when you do that," Jacobs said. "Let's all step back in time."

The lack of distractions facilitated more conversation between scenes. After a take, Winger and Letts would discuss their roles, digging deep into what was happening in their characters' minds. That was especially helpful during the nearly silent scenes. Letts has clearly given a lot of thought to what the camera is capable of picking up, saying it's "in some ways more perceptive even than we are in conversation because the camera doesn't blink, the camera doesn't look away, the camera is always on you."

While he was filming a supporting turn on "Homeland" a couple years ago, he conducted an experiment with the help of his wife, Carrie Coon (a standout on "Fargo" and "The Leftovers"). During one take, in a conversation with Mandy Patinkin's Saul, he kept his face and his mind blank. The next time around his face remained the same, but he intentionally introduced certain thoughts into his mind.

Coon could see the difference, according to Letts: "She could actually kind of read my mind just by watching the monitor."

This is a guy who clearly takes his job seriously. And he wasn't alone. According to Jacobs, all four of the main characters added their own winning details to the movie. One subtle running joke that Letts added was the way Michael is constantly tossing pillows on the floor; Mary has a bit where she keeps bumping into a plant at her office.

"That's not in the script," Jacobs said. "They just brought this thing that made the story so much better - these precise things you can connect to."

What does any of this mean for the future? Will Debra Winger, who hasn't done much acting in recent years, suddenly be the rom-com lead of choice? If only. And Letts?

"I don't necessarily think that this movie means that now start happening for me," he said. "Aza's written a rare opportunity for character actors to play these kinds of parts."