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PARK CITY, Utah<\/strong> \u2013 Chris Pine<\/a> gets a lot of scripts sent his way, but when Rachel Lambert\u2019s \u201cCarousel\u201d landed on his proverbial desk it was like he\u2019d stumbled on something from a different filmmaking era. In Lambert\u2019s lyrical prose was a story that, to him, felt very Robert Redford<\/a>, very \u201cOrdinary People.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMy favorite word for this film is quotidian,\u201d Pine said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. \u201cIt\u2019s a film in which nothing happens and yet everything happens.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s fitting then that \u201cCarousel\u201d is having its world premiere Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival,<\/a> where it is seeking distribution. The film is a story about love in all its messy incarnations, centered on a single father in Cleveland, Ohio, whose small medical practice is struggling, whose divorce is complicated and whose teenage daughter (Abby Ryder Fortson) is slipping into depression when his high school girlfriend ( Jenny Slate<\/a> ) comes back to town and they start up again.<\/p>\n Pine felt himself leaning into the script, wanting to know more about the characters and the filmmaker behind it. After watching Lambert\u2019s previous film, \u201cSometimes I Think About Dying,\u201d he saw a filmmaker whose cinematic vision was so unique, so distinctly her own that he joined \u201cCarousel\u201d not just as the star but a producer as well.<\/p>\n A homegrown movie, shot on film<\/p>\n Lambert had admired Pine from afar for years, for his intelligence and sensitivity on screen, and saw potential for him in the part of Noah. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a rareness to him that I don\u2019t see very often in performers,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cHe reminds me of Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant, these sort of towers of performers.\u201d<\/p>\n The actual experience of it turned out to be more special than she could have dreamed. Yes, he showed up as an actor, generous and receptive, but he also became a protector of sorts as well. Knowing how much Lambert wanted to shoot both in America and on film, two relatively expensive dreams for an indie, he made his own participation contingent on celluloid.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an enormous act that I think about a lot,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cThere are very few films shot in America and there are very few films shot on film \u2026 it lends a kind of extra emotional layer to the viewing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n For Lambert, shooting on film was an act of preservation. This was a story that she dreamed up during COVID lockdowns at her childhood home, a location she also used in \u201cCarousel.\u201d The homespun feeling of it added a texture and intimacy to the environment, whether it was using her mom\u2019s frozen fruit as a prop or literally chopping down a tree in the backyard, as Slate\u2019s character Rebecca does at one point.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just plunk right into whatever that closeness or intimacy is,\u201d Slate said.<\/p>\n A very good (second) first kiss<\/p>\n Chemistry is always a gamble, especially in indies where there\u2019s never enough time or money, but Lambert was blown away by just how well Pine and Slate worked out as these two characters attempting to start up again after many years apart.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just had an immediate affinity for one another,\u201d Pine said. \u201cJenny is so smart, and I\u2019m sort of a lover of smart people, so immediately she had me. And she likes to laugh and she makes me giggle. So we just had a really, really easy time getting to know one another.\u201d<\/p>\n While actors can wax poetic about how much they like and respect one another, ultimately it’s what\u2019s on screen that counts. Lambert remembered getting chills (the good kind) when shooting Rebecca and Noah\u2019s second first kiss.<\/p>\n \u201cIsn\u2019t it so good to have kissing on screen,\u201d Slate said. \u201cShooting that scene felt to me like it was in slow motion. It felt like such a beautiful thing to enact, really. But I mean, also that\u2019s something that you get with another actor who\u2019s really, really focused on landing it just right.\u201d<\/p>\n Making a film about love, and America<\/p>\n Of course, love is never as simple as it is in the movies, and Lambert wanted to reflect that in \u201cCarousel.\u201d At its heart there is a central romantic love story, but there are other love stories refracted throughout, through their families and professions. None are obstacles that need to be overcome exactly, but they\u2019re part of the fabric of a life.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this mantra I have already: ‘Have you ever wanted something so much in life you do all you could not to get it? That\u2019s what Noah is going through,\u201d Lambert said. \u201cHe wants so much to love this person, Rebecca, to feel love, to feel renewed. But there\u2019s all these other repairs he must attend to and all these fears he must attend to. I wanted to take that seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n Lambert is hesitant to prescribe what an audience might feel when watching her film. For her actors, though, it meant one of the richer creative experiences of their careers, getting to hone their craft in a way that might really resonate with audiences and speak to the human experience.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an earnest, heartfelt, non-jaded, non-cool investigation of the deepest fundamentals of what we humans do on the planet, which is, you know, how do we love?\u201d Pine said. \u201cThere\u2019s no gimmick here. There\u2019s no hold up, no spaceship, no great effects. The metronome to this film is very paced and deliberate and it requires a patience to allow yourself to be drawn into the spectacle of human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n For Lambert, Sundance is a homecoming and the only place she\u2019d have wanted it. \u201cCarousel\u201d is a proudly independent American film made on location, and Sundance is, whether in Colorado<\/a> or Utah, the quintessential independent American film festival.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat better platform does America provide for cinematic artists?\u201d Lambert said. \u201cThis film is American and, quietly, has a lot to say about America right now, and where we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n