'Private Life' – Now Streaming on Netflix

Private Life is so raw and real you almost feel like you’re eavesdropping but just can’t turn away.

The new film from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Tamara Jenkins (The Savages, Slums of Beverly Hills), is the filmmaker’s first movie in over a decade, since her 2007, Oscar-nominated sibling dramedy The Savages. Private Life is a sometimes funny and moving story of Richard (Academy Award-nominee Paul Giamatti) and Rachel (Kathryn Hahn), a couple in the throes of infertility who try to maintain their marriage as they descend deeper and deeper into the insular world of assisted reproduction and domestic adoption. After the emotional and economic upheaval of invitro- fertilization (IVF), they’re at the end of their middle-aged rope, but when Sadie (breakout newcomer Kayli Carter), a recent college drop out, re-enters their life, things begin to look up.

The film has been getting rave reviews and is being hailed as Tamara Jenkins' best work to date. For anyone wondering just how much of "Private Life" is drawn from her own experiences, Jenkins said during the Q&A after the film’s premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, "My husband and I went through some version of this, not quite like this, but something like this."

Jenkins is candid in her and her husband's pursuit to start a family. It's been just over 10 years when Jenkins and her husband, screenwriter Jim Taylor (Sideways), tried every way imaginable to get pregnant. Having gone through IVF Jenkins personally knows the highs and lows of the process. All the injections, the endless doctor’s appointments and measuring inter-muscular needles ultimately inspired the film. "It's invasive, it's expensive, it's emotionally draining and most of all it puts a real strain on your marriage," she stated during our interview.

Putting some of her personal experiences down on the script was not only cathartic but gives the the audience the opportunity to feel what it was like for such a private matter to become publicly scrutinized which in turn became a guiding force. "People are always asking, why are putting yourself through all of this? Why don't you just adopt? As if adoption is so easy," Jenkins says.

As for Kathryn Hahn, who in real life is a mother of two, she had her first child at 35. Although she did not have fertility issues she completely empathized with her director and friends who had a similar journey. "I know it's not so easy for everyone," she told me during our interview. "It breaks your heart to see your friends who want to start a family but are having a hard time conceiving. This script hit the nail on the head and it was something I instantly wanted to be a part of."

Hahn, who is known for many of her recent comedic roles in films like Step Brothers, Bad Moms, and Bad Moms Christmas, says that getting the opportunity to star in Private Life opposite Paul Giamatti has been an absolute gift. What might seem like an emotionally draining role, Hahn says it really wasn't. "We shot this movie in just a few weeks, so to be honest although the material was pretty heavy duty, I didn't have the time to wallow in it. There was a constant go, go, go on the set, which truthfully I was thankful for."

I spoke with star Kathryn Hahn and Tamara Jenkins via satellite from Los Angeles about working on the film and what it meant to them on a personal level. Please watch the interview above.

PRIVATE LIFE is playing in select theaters across the country and is currently streaming on Netflix.