CT native writes rom-com starring Yale graduates and inspired by her own Hamptons consignment shop

A West Hartford native used her experiences running a small business as the basis for a newly released movie. The circumstances of the romantic comedy “Love… Reconsidered” are remarkably similar to those of its creator, Arnelle Haller-Silverstone, who now lives in Sag Harbor, New York. She also said her experiences in the Connecticut arts community prepared her for the wild world of indie filmmaking.

“I opened up a consignment store in Southampton,” explained Haller-Silverstone. “Then I wrote a movie about opening up a consignment store in Southampton.”

The movie recently got a lot of media buzz when it was released to streaming services. A theatrical release is likely. So is a local public screening in West Hartford, though that is still in the planning stages.

“I originally wrote it as a series,” Haller-Silverstone said. “Then I turned it into a feature.”

The feature retains an anthology-style multi-story quality. She’s credited not just as the film’s writer but also as a co-producer.

“Love… Reconsidered” stars Sophie von Haselberg, a graduate of both Yale College and the graduate Yale School of Drama. At the drama school around a decade ago, von Haselberg’s performances ranged from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” the Sondheim musical “Sunday in the Park with George” and the Tennessee Williams drama “Vieux Carré.” She also played Wendy in a downbeat production of “Peter Pan” that highlighted the horrors of World War I. Von Haselburg is the daughter of actress/singer Bette Midler.

Also in the large cast are Jill Kargman (another Yale drama school graduate), Glastonbury native Jon Lemmon (the son of actor Chris Lemmon and grandson of Jack Lemmon) and comedian Judy Gold (who contributed the “Little Drummer Boy” scene to TheaterWorks Hartford’s holiday show “Christmas on the Rocks”) as Ruby’s mother.

Haller-Silverstone grew up in West Hartford, where she attended the Ethel Walker School and also spent two years at the Watkinson School in Hartford, now known as an inspiration for the Oscar-nominated film “The Holdovers.” Her mother, Sherry Haller, is the executive director of the Justice Education Center and hosts the “Perspectives” program on WWUH radio. Her father, David Silverstone, is a well-known attorney and consumer advocate. Her brother Yoni Haller is an actor and dancer in New York City.

“I have lived and breathed Connecticut for so long,” Haller-Silverstone said. She saw shows at the Goodspeed, Long Wharf and elsewhere throughout her childhood and “did a ton of community theater at the JCC.” Then, “I was a very failed actress in New York for a while — very failed like I never worked.” She had better luck with a short film she created and co-starred in, “Sac de Merde,” that screened at film festivals worldwide.

Now she is a produced screenwriter of a feature. The promotion of “Love… Reconsidered” in New York this week included von Haselburg and Kargman visiting the “Today” show, joined at the end of the segment by Haller-Silverstone.

“We’re very lucky,” Haller-Silverstone said. “It’s getting a lot of traction.” When the phrase “overnight success” comes up, she said, “Sure, four years later.” That’s how long the process took up to the film’s release this week.

Haller-Silverstones’s consignment store, Le Closet, is doing well, too. Is is so successful that she opened a second location on New York’s Upper East Side. “I love my stores and want to keep doing that,” she said, but she’s also being approached to do more film projects.

In the film, Von Haselburg plays Ruby, a woman in her early 30s who can’t keep a job, has no career prospects or savings and has just been dumped by her boyfriend. An unexpected encounter with a kindly older woman leads to Ruby running a consignment shop in Southampton. That part of her journey runs smoothly. More complicated is finding a place to stay, catching shoplifters, trusting her new highbrow friends and having any phone conversations cut short or garbled by bad connections.

The shop becomes the launching pad for several relationship stories unrelated to Ruby’s struggles. A lot of the humor is adult-oriented. One of the characters is an editor of porn movies who is unstimulated by his work. Another is a young woman who shoplifts lingerie from the store in anticipation of a milestone encounter with her boyfriend.

Fueled by entitlement, deception and bluster, “Love… Reconsidered” hits its stride with scenes of vapid cocktail party chatter and privileged pillow talk.

The film was shot where it is set, in Southampton New York, near where Haller-Silverstone now lives. “It was a quick shoot, about four weeks,” Haller-Silverstone said. She finds the area is “similar to arts communities in Connecticut.

“The local community is amazing,” Haller-Silverstone said. “This movie is all about the community.”

Haller-Silverstone is already at work on another screenplay, inspired by her mother’s unsuccessful run for state representative in 2020.

“It’s a comedy about local politics, which is so fraught with drama,” she said.

“Love… Reconsidered” can be purchased or rented on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+,Vudu and other streaming platforms.