Five years into parenthood and in the midst of a marital Armageddon, reporter Jancee Dunn undertakes a one-year quest to fix her marriage. But the self-help project she hopes will save her family instead pushes it closer to the brink.
Reporters Jancee Dunn and Tom Vanderbilt have a loving and peaceful relationship, so when Jancee is pregnant and her friends tell her: “Get ready to hate your husband,” she laughs in disbelief. But after their daughter is born, Jancee begins to feel the startling, white-hot rage that new mothers often have for their mates as she discovers she’s doing nearly all the childcare and household chores, despite never getting more than four hours of sleep. And so, the fighting begins. Five years later, when they are at their breaking point, Jancee undertakes a quest to save their relationship, writing a book about it along the way. She plunges into the latest relationship research soliciting the counsel of the country’s most renowned relationship experts, sociologists, and psychologists. She canvasses fellow parents and her own overly involved family. They go to couples’ therapy and undertake do a seven day “Sexperiment.” She even consults an FBI conflict negotiator on how to effectively contain an “explosive situation. But the project that is supposed to save them ultimately pushes their relationship to the brink. Based on the book of the same name, HOW NOT TO HATE YOUR HUSBAND AFTER KIDS is a romantic dramedy that scrutinizes and satirizes modern gender roles as the characters become entrenched in a homemade science experiment. Underscores a cultural discussion intensified by the pandemic, Jancee and Tom discover, adding a demanding new person to your relationship means things will never be the same.
Jennifer Grausman most recently directed and produced the short documentary INVESTIGATOR, which is playing at festivals in 2026. She is also the consulting producer on the documentary feature AMAZING LIVE SEA MONKEYS, which premieres at SXSW 2026. Previously, she directed and produced the Emmy-nominated feature documentary ART AND CRAFT, which was shortlisted for the Academy Awards and was one of the National Board of Review's Top 5 Documentaries. Art and Craft opened theatrically across the country, as well as in France and Japan, and was broadcast on PBS via POV. She also directed and produced the Emmy-nominated feature documentary PRESSURE COOKER, which was executive produced by Participant Media and garnered awards from festivals around the country before opening theatrically and being broadcast on BET. Grausman was consulting producer on the feature documentary HALSTON for CNN and she co-produced the narrative feature film 3 BACKYARDS, which won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition, Grausman acted as co-director of Almanack Screenwriters in Nantucket, MA from 2010 to 2012. Prior to receiving her MFA from the film program at Columbia University, she was the manager of exhibition and film funding at The Museum of Modern Art. She earned her BA in art history at Duke University.
