Wildlife
Directed by: Paul Dano
Written by: Paul Dano & Zoe Kazan - Based on the novel by Richard Ford
Starring: Ed Oxenbould, Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Camp, Zoe Margaret Colletti
Drama - 104 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 24 Oct 2018
Written by: Paul Dano & Zoe Kazan - Based on the novel by Richard Ford
Starring: Ed Oxenbould, Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Camp, Zoe Margaret Colletti
Drama - 104 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 24 Oct 2018
What do you make of it if you find yourself wanting to yell at the characters in the movie? Perhaps it’s working so well, it moves the audience to care and want to fix things only they can see need fixing. Or, maybe the script is so off balance and preposterous, we shake our heads knowing nobody would ever act so callous failing to see the emotional damage they are inflicting on their loved ones. Wildlife, actor Paul Dano’s first time in the director’s chair, is maddening. At times, it feels like a masterpiece because it is gorgeous to look at as the rural Montana countryside feels more suffocating than the busiest urban street corner. It also feels like a calamitous mess because it is frequently as enjoyable as low-grade dental work.
The Brinson family is as compact as their miniature, single-family rental home and their veiled, stunted conversations. Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal, Okja) loses his job as the local golf pro and course caretaker because, “I’m too well liked, and they just don't want small people like us getting ahead.” I’m sure the side-gambling had nothing to do with it. His wife, Jeanette Brinson (Carey Mulligan, Far from the Madding Crowd), doesn’t worry too much at first, “He’s been out of work before and he always finds his way; we have to trust him.” Not so coincidentally, 1960 presidential candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy, is on the radio in the background proclaiming, “I believe we can get this country moving again!” We watch the parents through the eyes of their earnest and increasingly perplexed son, 14 year-old Joe Brinson (Ed Oxenbould, The Visit).
The Brinson family is as compact as their miniature, single-family rental home and their veiled, stunted conversations. Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal, Okja) loses his job as the local golf pro and course caretaker because, “I’m too well liked, and they just don't want small people like us getting ahead.” I’m sure the side-gambling had nothing to do with it. His wife, Jeanette Brinson (Carey Mulligan, Far from the Madding Crowd), doesn’t worry too much at first, “He’s been out of work before and he always finds his way; we have to trust him.” Not so coincidentally, 1960 presidential candidate, Senator John F. Kennedy, is on the radio in the background proclaiming, “I believe we can get this country moving again!” We watch the parents through the eyes of their earnest and increasingly perplexed son, 14 year-old Joe Brinson (Ed Oxenbould, The Visit).
Jerry’s minuscule attempts to secure new employment takes a turn for the worse when he opts to join the firefighting crews battling an enormous wildfire outside of town. Abandoning his wife and son to do something about the “hum inside his head,” Jeanette begins to backslide away from the June Cleaver figure she was presenting earlier on. She engages Joe as more of a close acquaintance than as a mother and talks about the fire in terms of fuel and the "standing dead" - the term for the trees which survive a blaze. What happens to the animals left behind? They adapt she says.
Jeanette’s version of adaptation is gut-wrenching. She begins an affair with the town’s local car dealership owner, Warren Miller (Bill Camp, Red Sparrow). In a long scene where she has Joe accompany her to Warren’s house for dinner to watch her drink, flirt, and do everything a married mom should not do in front of her child, the audience suffers along with Joe at the horror show on parade. Jeanette and absent Jerry morph into acutely miserable parents. They cut their 14 year-old loose so Jeanette can enjoy some selfish hedonism and Jerry can work on his idea of masculinity somewhere out in the woods.
Paul Dano adapted the screenplay with his real-life partner, actress Zoe Kazan, from a novel by Richard Ford. Cinematographer Diego García employs impressive crane shots and maybe even drone-assisted cameras to film alone and afraid Joe adapting to the sparse town nestled in a lush, green valley with severely limited opportunities. The filmmaking is not why Wildlife emits an overbearing, harsh tone. It’s the characters' unconscionable choices. Jeanette is not the first out of options housewife to pursue another man to support her financially. However, why drag Joe into it? Joe is already suspect and caught mom out in a lie, but the in-your-face degradation is beyond scandalous, it’s nauseating.
Of course parents are real people too. They have flaws like everybody else, but not all of them encourage their son to sit back and observe their adultery. Life is hard and Jeanette’s 34 year-old self is not what she pictured 15 years ago. However, maybe throwing responsibility out the window and escorting out of your small house isn’t the way to go. Again, is wanting to scream, “Pull your head out of your ass!” at the screen a bad thing for the audience? At least it’s a form of caring. Where more mundane cinema will leave you docile and numb, Wildlife is going to spin you up. If that’s ride you want to take, Paul Dano is ready to strap you in and let you go, visual perks and tragedy included.
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