Ben Stiller has spoken openly about the painful period when he and Christine Taylor separated in 2017 — a chapter he revisits in his new documentary Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost. In candid scenes screened at the New York Film Festival, Stiller describes feeling “disconnected” from his family and admits the breakup made him feel like he was failing personally, especially when he compared his marriage to his parents’ long partnership. People.com

The documentary grew out of Stiller’s intention to honour his parents, comedy duo Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, but it evolved into something more intimate: a close look at how family, work and identity can fray even under a successful public life. Stiller tells viewers that during the years when he and Taylor lived separately he struggled with a sense of loss and dislocation, even as his career continued. That tension — the contrast between professional momentum and private crisis — is a through-line in the film. EW.com

Christine Taylor’s recollections in the film add important context: she describes the couple’s intense dynamic and the pressures of being both partners and collaborators. According to the documentary, the separation allowed each of them space to evaluate what the marriage meant and how their lives felt when they were not together. The pair remained connected during those years, co-parenting their two children and keeping channels of communication open — factors that ultimately helped them reconcile during the COVID-19 lockdown. E! Online+1

Stiller’s frank admission — “When we separated, my feeling was like ‘Oh, I’m failing at this’” — also reflects a larger theme the film explores: looking to family models for an idea of success. He repeatedly contrasts his marriage with his parents’ 50-plus-year partnership, saying he felt pressure to “live up” to that legacy and that the separation forced him to reckon with what a durable relationship actually requires. For viewers, those reflections make the movie less a celebrity confessional than a meditation on how marriages endure (or don’t) across decades. Vulture+1

Journalists and critics who attended the festival screenings noted how the film’s personal stakes shifted its tone. What began as a tribute to comic partners and family history became, in practice, a form of therapy on film: Stiller uses archival footage, interviews and family conversations to map mistakes and recoveries. Reviewers have praised the honesty on display while also flagging the emotional difficulty of watching the family confront private pain in public. Vulture+1

Why the story matters beyond celebrity gossip
A few reasons make Stiller’s account resonate. First, it’s a reminder that long-term relationships — even high-profile ones — can fracture when work, identity or habit outweigh intimacy. Second, the way the couple handled the separation — staying connected, co-parenting, and later using shared time during the pandemic to renegotiate their partnership — offers a real-world example of reconciliation that many readers find relatable. Finally, by placing the family saga alongside the story of his parents’ marriage, Stiller invites viewers to think about inheritance, expectations and the private work that sustains relationships. People.com+1

What comes next for the Stiller–Taylor story is partly public and partly private. Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost opens more widely this month (with streaming to follow), giving audiences fuller access to the conversations and context the couple has begun to share. Stiller has framed the film not only as a tribute to his parents’ creative partnership but also as a way to show how failure, humility and reconnection can be part of a family’s arc — messages that, for many viewers, feel unexpectedly moving and instructive. People.com+1