Looking for love

KRISTEN Wiig is not an actress one would normally associate with a serious dramatic role - especially after her hilarious performance in Bridesmaids - but then again, her brand of comedy is not all that far removed from tragedy. The characters she inhabits, whether in comic sketches on Saturday Night Live or fully-formed personas in feature films, often walk the delicate line between real and imagined worlds, between sad and funny. It's a place she seems comfortable in.

In Hateship Loveship, a film adapted from a short story by Alice Munro with a screenplay by Mark Poirier and directed by Liza Johnson, Wiig is wholly convincing as Johanna Parry, a plain-looking yet practical-minded and hard-working housekeeper. There is a grim determination about everything Johanna does, whether it's scrubbing the kitchen floor, shopping for groceries or dressing a just-deceased old woman in a favourite dress.

There is a deep neediness about her as well, a condition brought about by her lonely, love-starved existence. She has devoted her life to caring for others but she's also a woman alone and in search of emotional well-being.