Welcome to the Rileys **** If there's one reason to see this outstanding exploration of the human condition and our longing to heal broken lives and relationships, it's for the powerful performance of Kirsten Stewart (the Twilight Girl), as a teenager who has lost herself and works as a stripper in a seedy joint, well supported by James Gandolfini (Sopranos) as a plumber whose marriage is down the drain and tries to find new meaning in life, and Melissa Leo (The Fighter) as his wife, a woman whose life has stopped after the death of their daughter.   Married nearly 30 years, Doug (Gandolfini) and Lois (Leo) rarely talk. She doesn't leave their Indianapolis home, and she's ordered a gravestone with their names and birth years on it. He has a long-time Thursday night mistress whom he invites to go with him to a plumbing supply conference in New Orleans. Once there, Doug calls Lois to say he's staying for a while. What's he leaving behind and what's he looking for in New Orleans? And Lois, can she break out?

WELCOME TO THE RILEYS began its journey to the big screen in a New Orleans institution: the notorious Bourbon Street strip joint Big Daddy's. In 2002, screenwriter Ken Hixon went to the Big Easy to attend the wedding of a long-time friend, and he and some friends dropped by the now-defunct club. Hixon noticed a girl who appeared far too young and vulnerable to be a stripper dancing on a small stage in the back of the club. The image of that young woman stuck with him and became the inspiration for a screenplay that evolved into WELCOME TO THE RILEYS, the story of a couple coming to terms with the loss of their daughter through an unlikely relationship with a teenage stripper.
A few years later, Hixon gave the finished script to Michael Costigan, president of Scott Free Productions and one of the film's producers. When Costigan read the script, he was hooked by its hard-edged emotional honesty. "The movie is about how people connect with each other," says Costigan. "But it is never pat, simple or sentimental. It feels very true and complicated, the way real life is."
Sensing that the script needed a director who could handle its complex emotional demands, Costigan approached Jake Scott whose credits included the period action comedy feature Plunkett and MacLeane as well as dozens of music videos for some of the world's most popular and acclaimed artists. Costigan felt that, in addition to being a strong visual storyteller, Scott's background as a husband and father of four (including two daughters) would allow him to find a deeper connection to the story of this fractured family. "I could tell my description struck a chord," says Costigan. "And once he read it, he said he had to make this film. Jake saw all the levels in the script. He understood it was about love and how a husband and wife find each other again, but also about getting a second chance at parenting. And Jake has a unique visual style, which I thought would be helpful in opening up the film."
The timing was fortuitous. Scott was actively looking for a character-driven piece to direct and WELCOME TO THE RILEYS fit the bill. "I was interested in doing something quite real about ordinary people," he says. "Many things about this script spoke to me. It's a film about learning to live with uncontrollable forces."
Scott says he was especially impressed by the script's moving portrayal of a family in crisis. "Doug was the character I really responded to," he explains. "Doug Riley is a plumber, in both a literal and metaphorical way. He's not the kind of man to run to a psychologist to deal with this sort of pain. He has taped up a pipe that is leaking, and it's eventually going to burst somewhere else. He thinks a man should be able to get over this and it takes him eight years to finally hit the wall."
Ironically, Costigan says, finding financing for a small-scale project like WELCOME TO THE RILEYS can be as difficult or more so that putting together a blockbuster. "When I read it, I knew it would be hard to get made in Hollywood," he says. "The only way to do it was to find a filmmaker to bring it to life and a perfect cast. We were very lucky to find an incredible partner in Argonaut Pictures. They were engaged enough by our view of the film to be willing to finance it."
Scott Bloom and Giovanni Agnelli, the founders of Argonaut Pictures, were searching for the film that would be their production company's first release. After considering many projects, it became apparent that to them WELCOME TO THE RILEYS was the film they both wanted to make.
Bloom and Agnelli credit Jake Scott's vision for the film as the deciding factor. "He wanted to make a very honest, studied view of the mental state of these different characters and the chemistry between them," says Bloom. "We felt confident that Jake was very much an actor's director and had the goods to bring out the best in a stellar team of performers."
In fact, they were so confident that they agreed to produce the film before they left the first meeting. "I read a lot of scripts," says Agnelli. "When I try to visualize them in my head, sometimes I can't imagine how it's going to turn out. When we sat down with Jake, he had such a precise, clear vision of what he wanted to do. He found so much between the lines. Scott and I looked at each other and we knew right there we were going to make this movie."

A Different Kind Of Family
WELCOME TO THE RILEYS brings together three well-respected performers, James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart and Melissa Leo, in roles that allow them to create characters far different from what audiences have come to expect from them. "All three went deep into themselves and I think they may be playing more themselves than we've seen before," says Scott.
Doug is the lynchpin in the emotional triangle and the filmmakers began and ended their search with actor James Gandolfini. "From the beginning, we said there was only one person to play Doug," says Michael Costigan. "We needed an actor who could handle the range of emotions and stay believable in this world. We went straight to Jim."
Gandolfini had only recently completed almost a decade of playing Tony Soprano on the critically acclaimed HBO series. "I was a bit nervous about going into a film with a very good actor who had played one character for so long," Scott says. "Once I saw ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES, an unusual musical he made with Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet, I changed my mind. He gets cast all the time as a wise guy, but he has an incredible range."
Doug Riley is a self-made man, a successful plumbing contractor sidelined by tragedy. "He started as a plumber, and the fact that he's enormously successful is his own doing," says Scott. "I wanted a big man who was credible as a blue-collar guy, much like my grandfather in the north of England. Jim has thatinnate quality. He's like a big grizzly bear, very lovable and cuddly, but he's still got claws and he's very powerful. It's important that Doug is a man's man who is felled by this pain. Jim's capacity for tenderness is immense and very powerful. He's a complex man, but also a very sweet and kind person."
"Jake is a great director," says Gandolfini. "He's an enormously creative talent, and made the film enjoyable to work on, which was no small feat considering the darkness of the material."
Emotionally as well as professionally, Doug sees a problem, rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. "Doug is a damaged man who is trying to mend his broken heart," says the actor. "When he sees Mallory is broken, he tries to fix himself by fixing her."
Doug finds closure and redemption in the experience of helping Mallory, Gandolfini says. "He has a chance to feel he has made a difference in a young girl's life, and a second chance for his marriage. Without giving anything away, Doug and Lois may not be in such a different place from where they started, but it does seem like they find a reason to go on that they may not have had when the story started."
When she first met with Jake Scott, Kristen Stewart had just finished filming TWILIGHT, the film that would make her a global star. But she was best known at the time for her finely wrought performance as a lonely girl living in a trailer park in INTO THE WILD. "Kristen had a vulpine, feral wiliness combined with a childlike quality and an almost hidden beauty," he says. "It was exactly the quality we were looking for."
Bloom and Agnelli were already admirers of her work as well. "When this project came along, we were already thinking she was one of the best young actresses out there," says Bloom. "It's very rare to find someone, especially in that age range, with the emotional availability and willingness to take the risks required to play a character as vulnerable and tortured as Mallory. We were also very confident in Jake's trust in her."
Stewart confesses that when she first read the script, she was reluctant to commit. "I loved the material so much that I didn't want to let it down," she says. But Scott was determined to have her play the role and kept in touch during the development period. "Jake asked me to talk to him about it again. It was sort of intimidating. Mallory was probably the most broken character of that age that I'd ever read, yet she was also one of the funniest and most seriously vivacious.
"Mallory is strong and very, very much alive, but she doesn't have one of the key elements that makes life worth living," Stewart explains. "She doesn't have the capacity for love and trust in others, or at least she thinks she doesn't. Doug and Lois show her that she has not yet gotten to that point."
To research the role, Stewart spent time in strip clubs in Los Angeles, often accompanied by Scott. "He orchestrated everything and made sure I felt safe," she says. "We went to a ton of strip clubs. Once at a club in LA, we went to the back door and I was already not washing my hair and looking sort of worse for wear. A guy at the club told me if 'you want a job, you'll have come back later.' I was like 'oh, no, I'm just coming to look around.'"
The experience gave the actress a first-hand look at Mallory's world. "What struck me was how hungry the girls are, and how cutthroat and businesslike it is," she says. "I spoke to people in New Orleans who were not living on the street, but who never really had a steady place to live and who were making their money on the street doing what Mallory does. We actually shot in a real club called Dixie Divas. I practiced in there, and danced with the girls. Not a lot of them were open to talking about themselves, but a few shared some great stories about their lives."
The actors' onset relationships developed organically, Stewart says, mirroring the relationships in the film. "This was the first time I had been on location alone and I was still a little scared of the role. I was so intimidated by the whole thing that both James and Melissa instantly stepped in. James and I had something of the same dynamic that Doug and Mallory have, and, as in the movie, it's a great relationship.
He's really funny and incredibly serious. It was just inspiring to share energy with him.
"And Melissa was mothering me all the time," Stewart adds. "She's one of the most incredible actresses and really fun to improv with. She can go anywhere, because she's just right there, so present all the time."
The film's somewhat ambiguous ending strikes Stewart as realistic. "When they meet, they're all really broken," she says. "I think that rather than putting each other back together, they show each other they still have that possibility. Maybe Mallory doesn't stop doing her job. Maybe she's still dancing, I don't know. But now that she has someone in the world who cares about her, she cares about herself. Doug gave her that."
The role of Lois, Doug's soft-spoken, agoraphobic wife, required an actress who could create a world of hurt with a simple gesture or look. "I wanted someone who could wear that anguish and that terrible, profound pain on the surface, but at the same time, remain graceful, meticulous and dignified, just as you find her in the beginning of the film," says Scott. "She continues the daily routines as she believes a wife should."
The director recalls writing Melissa Leo's name on top of the front page of his script after reading it. "I already knew her work from 21 GRAMS, and I thought she was fabulous," says Scott. "Melissa is the rare actress who is not afraid to show her character's lines and damage. She is a genius and deserves every accolade she gets."
As we went through the financing process, I was given a list of perhaps ten names, some of whom really didn't fit with the story, but who were thought to be more 'bankable,'" says Scott. "I knew this film would be damaged by miscasting because it's all about character."
The director championed Leo to the producers, convinced she was the right person to play Lois. "A lot of actresses, including some big marquee names, met with Jake for that part," says Agnelli. "Within 20 minutes, we were saying, 'That's Lois.'"
Best known for raw, gritty raw performances like the ones she delivers in FROZEN RIVER and television's HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, Leo was asked to transform herself into the polar opposite. Lois is very controlled and understated," says Bloom. "The character goes on a huge journey. We were very excited to have another opportunity to entrust that to someone in the upper echelon of the craft of acting."
Leo was immediately intrigued by the story and the idea of playing a part so unlike anything she had done before. "I read the script and said, 'where do I go?'" says Leo. "It was an unusual triangle, a seemingly hopeless love story between a grown-up couple. I've never played anyone like Lois Riley before, and I was touched by the notion of being able to expand who I'm seen as and the roles I'm capable of inhabiting."
The actress came to the project full of ideas about her character, from wardrobe to the emotionally charged dynamic between the characters. "Finding her was an amazing process that I could only have done with the help of a terrific team," she adds. "It took a lot of effort by everyone. It took hair and makeup and costuming and props and lighting and even the pacing of the shoot to make Lois come alive. There was great respect paid to her on the set."
Leo is as full of praise for her fellow actors as she is for the film's hardworking crew. "There are people I hold to be actors through and through and Jimmy is in that category. I met with him in New York before I was cast. He was as much meeting me as Doug was meeting Lois. Both of us were overjoyed to have a chance to play grownups.
Then in New Orleans, I met this tiny, shy, hard-working actress, bruised all up and down from practicing pole-dancing in the French Quarter," she goes on. "It wasn't until later that I realized she was in THE CAKE EATERS, another movie I acted in. Kristen had transformed herself so much for that role--and was preparing to do so for Mallory--that I had not recognized her as the same person."
The producers agree that being able to assemble this cast was a blessing they did not initially expect. "One of the most satisfying things about this film was that we were able to finance the film without relying on foreign sales or presales," says Agnelli. "That allowed us to bring in actors solely because they were the right performers for this film."

Welcome To New Orleans
"Dramatically, it made so much sense to be in New Orleans," says producer Costigan. "The city, like the characters, was devastated by a sudden act of God. It was changed forever by a disturbance (Hurricane Katrina) beyond anyone's control and it needs to rebuild, but there are no easy answers. It has the same 'what next?' quality as the three characters."
The filmmakers selected locations that reflect the reality of living in the city. "There was an incredible authenticity to the world the actors were inhabiting," says Scott. "The restaurant where Mallory and Lois eat po' boys is two blocks from her house. It's a 10-minute drive to Bourbon Street. The Bywater, where she lives, is near the shipyards and train yards, an area that was very badly flooded. On the façade of the house, there are still the Xs that were put there by National Guard. They would spray paint a code on each house indicating the number of dead and injured. I saw it as an amazing metaphor for Mallory."
Scott's New Orleans is not the picturesque, romanticized city depicted in many other movies, but rather the run-down, on-the-edge home of a girl struggling to get by. "I looked at a lot of films shot in New Orleans," he says. "There are so many clichés. Most are very attractive, but not realistic. It's a very colorful, exotic and dangerous place. It has a lot of bang and clatter, in contrast to the hermetically sealed box where the Rileys live. We were interested in using that contrast."
The unique ambiance of New Orleans influenced everything from the film's color palette to the music created for its score. Scott says the cool azure light that permeates the film occurred naturally. "In New Orleans, there's a humidity in the daytime," he says. "It is often overcast and hazy, which lends a blueness to the light. I didn't want to correct the color, because once you start fiddling with stuff like that, you start stepping away from reality."
The icy colors of Doug and Lois' Indianapolis home were drawn from a different source, the work of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. "I'd seen an exhibition of his work in London before shooting began," Scott says. "The paintings were images of women standing alone in hallways and they tended toward soft, cooler tones of blues and grays. I felt it was necessary to incorporate that in the film because it reminded me of the notion of still water--not stagnant water, because that implies decay, but still water."
The director made another unexpected choice for the movie's moody, delicate score. While New Orleans is known for raucous, energetic music from Dixieland to Zydeco, Scott chose to use a very different sound, while still incorporating the musical heritage of the city. "I love New Orleans jazz and funk, but it wasn't appropriate to the story," he says. "I try to be meticulous with music. I listen to music more than I watch movies. It's one of my passions."
Scott brought in Marc Streitenfeld, who has composed music for blockbusters including AMERICAN GANGSTER and ROBIN HOOD. "Mark seemed to get the film completely," he says. "We worked together on what the instrumentation should be. In keeping with the setting, we use traditional instruments in the American music vernacular that are common in New Orleans, like banjo, harmonica and some percussion instruments.
"We used several pieces by Dr. John," continues Scott. "Tinkly piano with no vocals. I tried to stay in Doug's point of view and keep it in line with that. Doug's a quiet man. He's trying to get away from the madding crowd. I wanted it to have the rhythm of Doug's heart, his unsteadiness and the feeling inside him."
Producer Michael Costigan hopes all the carefully selected elements add up to an experience that will move and inspire the audience. "I want people to really connect with these characters and relate to their stories," he says. "I hope the truth of what they go through shines through, which means no easy answers. It's genuinely uplifting because it's real."

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