While it’s obvious that not all depressing films will be inspirational to viewers, a sizable percentage of films deemed "inspirational" inevitably make me want to crawl into the corner of my couch and bury my head between the cushions while I contemplate my life and what it’s worth. (I usually find a quarter or so, which I accept as the answer.) Such is how I feel after watching the first trailer for Anthony Fabian’s upcoming drama Louder Than Words, a film that turns a personal tragedy into an institution that has gone on to prevent untold numbers of subsequent tragedies for others. Is somebody cutting onions in here, or is somebody just blowing dust into my eyes?
Louder Than Words tells the true story of John Fareri (David Duchovny), his wife Brenda (Hope Davis), and their four kids. Back in 1995, the husband and wife experienced the unthinkable when their youngest daughter, 13-year-old Maria (Olivia Steele-Falconer), lost her life due to rabies of all things. Though it of course floored them, they soon found out about a school project Maria was involved in where she made a wish for all of the children in the world to be healthy and well, and put that wish to work.
With the help of hundreds of people in their community, the Fareris founded and built the Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital as part of the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York. It’s not only the lone specialist-heavy children’s hospital in the area, but it’s the only one named after an actual child in the entire United States.
The trailer, via Deadline, admittedly looks about as straightforward a drama as one could imagine for this type of story. But it also features voiceover by Maria, and it’ll be interesting to see how that gets worked into the narrative; perhaps the real Maria kept a diary or something with entries that will be used in the movie, which sounds even more heartbreaking.
Also starring Timothy Hutton, Xander Berkeley, Craig Bierko and Adelaide Kane, Louder than Words made its debut last October at the Hamptons International Film Festival , and will be distributed domestically by Preferred Content, though no release date has been set as of now. Epic Pictures Group will be shopping it around at the European Film Market at Berlin this week.
If you’ve got your emotions on hardcore lockdown, check out the video below, in which a few families share their heartwarming stories about their experiences at the Children’s Hospital. And maybe after that you can watch an episode or two of Adult Swim’s Childrens Hospital to lighten the mood.
