‘Tiny Beautiful Things’, the female best-seller that Reese Witherspoon has turned into a series for Disney +

Clare is a woman whose life is a real mess. Just got kicked out of her own house by her husband and her daughter, she’s running around drunk and she’s not doing well at work either. But, by a twist of fate, she will end up being the one who gives advice to other people through a web of anonymous letters. It is not, a priori, who to give advice, but she is there. and although when ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ begins, we are not entirely clear about the causes of his personal drift or its implications; that will be what unravels the series throughout its eight episodes, offering an increasingly complex and nuanced portrait of a protagonist who, at first glance, seems almost a caricature. The series, like it, will show that there is much more to scratching than meets the eye.

What is unfolding in this Disney+ proposal is a human study on grief, family understanding (and misunderstanding), support networks, and the wounds of frustrated dreams. Kathryn Hahn (‘Transparent’, ‘Wandavision’) is the absolute protagonist of this story and, on her (and her charisma and telegyny) rests the entire weight of the story, sometimes perhaps too much, although the work of Sarah Pidgeon is also remarkable (who once again offers us a complicated young woman after ‘The Wilds’), not being easy at all to embody the youthful version of Hahn, and less in a series in which the past has so much dramatic weight.

In fact, ‘Tiny Beatuful Things’ is articulated like a puzzle with which to compose a detailed image of Clare, with pieces that provide information and layers. While the main narrative line, the present one, represents the current chaos of the protagonist, the story is supported by disordered flashbacks to add context and depth, as well as the responses to the letters to put certain reflections on the table. This structure, chaotic at times and difficult to start, can find its roots in the material from which it starts. the series: a book of essays by author Cheryl Strayed, used by Reese Witherspoon to bring it to the screen, developed by Liz Tigelaar.

Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s Empire

Before ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’, Witherspoon and Tigelaar already they worked together on ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ as producer and showrunner respectively. The two projects also share a literary origin and a life cycle. The company of the actress, Hello Sunshine, has specialized in recent years in the adaptations of books as series and movies, starting from ‘Big Little Lies’, the fiction that praised Reese Witherspoon in this producer profile.

But she not only acquires copyright: Its book club is very famous, with tens of thousands of followers, which serves to promote the books of many female authors, which it recommends.. And, of course, many of these books are then prepared for their adaptation through their production company, as is the case in the case that concerns us today or ‘Little Fires Everywhere’, ‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ or ‘ The last thing he told me’, recently released on Apple TV +. Sold in August 2021 for 900 million dollars to some former Disney executives, Hello Sunshine is one of the thriving production companies in Hollywood, especially when it comes to series, and it maintains part of the shares and a high position Witherspoon even if it’s not just yours.

‘Tiny Beautiful Things’, related to ‘Wild Soul’

Cataloged as an essay, the book ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ is a collection of self-help columns that its author, Cheryl Strayed, wrote on The Rumpus website under the pseudonym Sugar (hence, the fictional plot of the series). After its publication, it jumped to the list of best sellersalthough it was not the first time that Strayed caressed success with his rough experiences. His autobiographical book ‘Savage’ also did very well in sales and critical level. In it, he recounted his experience on a journey of self-discovery through 1,800 kilometers along the Pacific Ridge Trail, which crosses the states of California, Oregon and Washington.

But, beyond the journey, the author reflected on grieving for his mother and how that led to drug use and self-destructive sex, two themes that are also central to the story of the ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ series. In addition, ‘Savage’ gave rise to the film ‘Savage Soul’, which starred Reese Witherspoon (for which she got an Oscar nomination) and also produced through Pacific Starndard, the company she owned before Hello Sunshine. Thus, the creative idyll between the two goes back a long way.