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Why it’s key: “Playing a lovable grump is hard; you can lose the audience if you play it too far,” says writer-director Cord Jefferson.

Howard is an old-fashioned grump, but he’s too nice to ever go full Archie.

But as he bickers amusingly with his old friend Roger, the kindly grump who owns the store, she is too bone-weary to engage.

At first, the grump does his best to scare off the invader.

“I didn’t want her to look like a grump schoolmistress,” Atwood said.