Real-life spouses Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick reunite in The Best You Can after 20 years

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are back as scene partners in The Best You Can, their first new on-camera pairing in about 20 years. In the romantic dramedy, Kevin Bacon plays Stan Olszewski, a home security guard whose routine call pulls him into Cynthia Rand’s life. She is a New York City doctor dealing with pressure at home and a marriage complicated by caregiving.

Their first interaction is brief, but it opens a late-night text thread that turns into an ongoing friendship. That bond keeps changing as both of them hit the same questions about aging, family, and what comes next. The film world premiered at the Tribeca Festival as a Spotlight Narrative feature, and it later rolled out for home viewing after its festival run. As per the Deadline interview report dated January 30, 2024, Bacon and Sedgwick said,

“We are so excited to work together on screen again for the first time in 20 years in such a funny, moving and original script.”

Where Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick reunite in The Best You Can, and what the movie is about?

The “reunion” in The Best You Can is straightforward. They co-starred, and the film debuted as a Tribeca world premiere in the festival’s Spotlight Narrative section. Tribeca lists it as a 103-minute feature. The credits also put creator Michael J. Weithorn in the central role as writer and director, with Bacon and Sedgwick among the producers.

The setup is built around one call and what happens after. Cynthia contacts Stan’s security company after an attempted break-in, and the two meet because he responds to the incident.

The story then shifts into text conversations that keep going after the job is done, so the relationship grows through messages, check-ins, and late-night honesty instead of a single meet-cute scene. First look frames their arc as strangers who connect, blur the lines, and then have to deal with what that connection means in real life.

The trailer leans into that structure. It shows the break-in call as the starting point, then cuts forward to their phones becoming the main bridge. The clips also highlight how different their lives look on paper, and why texting becomes the space where they can be blunt.

A big reason the film plays as “after 20 years” without relying on nostalgia is that the characters do not behave like a familiar couple. Cynthia already has a full life and a complicated home situation. Stan has his own mess, including an effort to reconnect with his daughter.

Their bond is not framed as fate, and it is not framed as a reset of their real marriage either. It is two adults discovering each other in the way modern friendships often start, by saying things in a message that they would struggle to say out loud.

Inside the story: characters, supporting cast, and the real-life inspiration behind the script

The film’s tension comes from what each character is carrying before they ever meet. Cynthia Rand is identified as a New York City urologist. Her husband, Warren Rand, is played by Judd Hirsch, and the story places him in decline with dementia, which makes Cynthia’s day-to-day life about caretaking as much as it is about work.

Stan is positioned as someone drifting, working security, and trying to repair a strained relationship with his daughter, Sammi, played by Brittany O’Grady. Tribeca’s cast list also centers Hirsch and O’Grady alongside Bacon and Sedgwick.

The supporting cast adds pressure points instead of side quests. Hirsch’s role is the immediate reality Cynthia cannot escape, and O’Grady’s role is the family relationship Stan keeps trying to rebuild. Early reporting on the project also named Ray Romano among the cast, which fits the movie’s lane as a character-driven dramedy built around uncomfortable conversations and small turns.

Weithorn has also explained that the script was pulled from life, not from a “write a movie for a famous couple” plan. As per the EW's report dated June 3 2025, he traces the spark to experiences that include observing a middle-aged woman with a much older husband at a dinner like one depicted in the film, plus the way texting can create a steady intimacy with someone you barely know.

The “after 20 years” angle: their shared history, how they made the chemistry feel new, and release details

Kevin Bacon and Sedgwick have been married since 1988, and they met on the set of the 1987 PBS project Lemon Sky. That real-life history is the reason the marketing keeps using the “after 20 years” line, because their last major on-screen stretch together was in 2004 with The Woodsman and Cavedweller.

Their collaboration has also crossed behind the camera, including Sedgwick appearing in Bacon’s directorial debut Loverboy, and Bacon starring in Sedgwick’s directorial debut Space Oddity.

To keep the characters from feeling like a married couple in disguise, the production leaned into separation. Entertainment Weekly reports that Weithorn asked them not to rehearse together and pushed choices like a wig for Sedgwick, so Bacon could register her as “new” inside the scene work. The goal was not to hide their real chemistry. The goal was to make the characters earn closeness believably.

The film’s streaming availability is now on Netflix and Amazon.

Stay tuned for more updates.