There's a telling line of dialogue in "This Is My Life," which will kick off the Sundance Film Festival Thursday evening, Jan. 16, with its world premiere (7 p.m. at the Cineplex Odeon Crossroads Plaza Theaters).
The moment comes when Julie Kavner's character, whose career has been keeping her away from home for extended periods, is told by her boyfriend (Dan Aykroyd) that she shouldn't worry about her two daughters. "Kids are happy if their mother is happy," he says.But Kavner bristles: "If you give kids a choice - your mother in the next room on the verge of suicide vs. your mother in ecstasy in Hawaii - they'll choose suicide in the next room, believe me."
Comic but true, those words came from a witty screenplay by writer/director Nora Ephron (co-written with her sister, Delia, prominent writer of children's books).
On the surface, "This Is My Life" is about a woman who takes a stab at standup comedy and skyrockets to stardom. But it's really about a single working mother who learns that it takes compromises on both sides to keep the family together.
"Nora firmly believes in that," Kavner said in a telephone interview. "And she also believes you can do it all. You can juggle it."
"It's the truth," Ephron said in a separate telephone interview, "and I think it's one of the things Delia and I are proudest of in the movie - that in some way it's truly about that experience, of being a single parent. And, of course, you don't have to be a single parent for that line to be true, you just have to be a parent."
She explained that the line itself wasn't in the script initially, but came out when she was going over the story with a friend,Rob Reiner, who directed Ephron's screenplay, "When Harry Met Sally. . . ."
"He read it and was going through it, and we began talking about Dottie (Kavner's character) and what her choices really were. And Rob looked at me and said the line that Dan Aykroyd says in the movie, that children are happy if their mothers are happy. And I said, "No, children are happy if their mother is there.' Then I said the line about Hawaii and suicide in the next room, and Rob said, `Put that in the movie!' "
"This Is My Life" is based on a book - "This Is Your Life," by Meg Wolitzer - which was sent to her by producer Lynda Obst, who felt Ephron would identify with it. One element was extremely close - the conflict between mother and daughters when Dottie puts personal things from her children's lives into her standup routines on stage.
Ephron's parents were Henry and Phoebe Ephron, who wrote the stage plays "Carousel," "The Desk Set" - and "Take Her, She's Mine," which was based on letters Ephron wrote to them when she was in college.
"It was sent to me to direct, and also to write, and when I read it I knew I wanted to do it. It had so much resonance in my life. I'm a single parent, my parents wrote stuff about me growing up, I've got two kids and I am all of that stuff."
"This Is My Life" marks Julie Kavner's first starring role after years of second-banana parts in movies, including five Woody Allen pictures. Before that she was Valerie Harper's sister on the TV series "Rhoda." She also co-starred on the `Tracey Ullman Show,' where she began doing the voice of Marge in two-minute "Simpsons" cartoon shorts, and has continued that role in the hit animated series (also doing the voices of Marge's sisters and mother).
But for "This Is My Life," Kavner was initially asked to play a supporting role as one of Dottie's agents, a role ultimately played by Carrie Fisher. "Oh, the movie went through so many different processes," Kavner says. "In the original draft, and in the book as well, the character sings. So they were looking at a lot of other people - Bette Midler, Cher."
Ephron says she always enjoyed Kavner's work but had never met her. "I loved her from the moment I saw her on `Rhoda.' I think people feel this way about Julie. People love her. The next time I saw her was `Hannah and Her Sisters,' and I recognized her voice before I even recognized her face. And I used to watch her on `Tracey Ullman.'
"When Delia and I wrote the script and talked about casting, we always had Julie in mind."
But the studio was, naturally, interested in a star-driven film. When both Bette Midler and Cher fell through, Ephron had a meeting with Joe Ross, the head of 20th Century Fox, during which Ross said they might want to consider using a lesser-known star so the audience wouldn't know for sure if Dottie was going to be successful. "And I said, `Julie Kavner.' And he said that was great, and we walked out of the meeting in a state of shock. The next day we called Julie."
Kavner says, "When things changed, I thought, `Well, gee, I don't know, it's a lot of work these starring major roles. But it's a great part, and that's the thing about starring or lead roles - those are the best parts.
"Nora was great working with all of us. She's a great actor's director. I really enjoyed working for her."