Wish I Was Here
Directed by: Zach Braff
Written by: Adam J. & Zach Braff
Starring: Zach Braff, Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Joey King, Pierce Gagnon, Donald Faison, Ashley Greene, Jim Parsons, Michael Weston
Comedy/Drama - 120 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 July 2014
Written by: Adam J. & Zach Braff
Starring: Zach Braff, Kate Hudson, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Joey King, Pierce Gagnon, Donald Faison, Ashley Greene, Jim Parsons, Michael Weston
Comedy/Drama - 120 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 18 July 2014
In a recent interview, Zach Braff admits there was “some quirk for quirk sake” in 2004’s Garden State. We knew that already, yet I continue to count myself as a Garden State defender. Sometimes too much quirk works. Juno and just about every Wes Anderson film also approach similar territory. However, in Wish I Was Here, described as a spiritual sequel to Garden State, Braff treads some very familiar terrain. There is a shot in a hospital waiting room of Braff uncomfortably staring at an empty pamphlet container that says, “This pamphlet may save your life.” This scene could have been ripped right out of Garden State.
Copying yourself is no great crime in cinema; Woody Allen has filmed variants of the same conversation about death for decades. Yet, at any moment in Wish I Was Here, Braff’s character, Aidan Bloom, would not be out of place to stop and talk about the 'infinite abyss'. Most likely not as intentional, there is a striking similarity to the 2009 Coen Brothers’ film A Serious Man. External forces wreaked havoc on the main character’s life there whereas Aidan’s problems mostly stem from his own doing. However, compare the aged rabbis in both films. One of them quotes Jefferson Airplane as gospel behind a large desk in a grand office and the other giggles at YouTube cat videos behind a large desk in a grand office.
Copying yourself is no great crime in cinema; Woody Allen has filmed variants of the same conversation about death for decades. Yet, at any moment in Wish I Was Here, Braff’s character, Aidan Bloom, would not be out of place to stop and talk about the 'infinite abyss'. Most likely not as intentional, there is a striking similarity to the 2009 Coen Brothers’ film A Serious Man. External forces wreaked havoc on the main character’s life there whereas Aidan’s problems mostly stem from his own doing. However, compare the aged rabbis in both films. One of them quotes Jefferson Airplane as gospel behind a large desk in a grand office and the other giggles at YouTube cat videos behind a large desk in a grand office.
Doing himself no favors, Aidan’s problems are cascading around him just like Job. He is 35 years old and chasing his life long dream to become an actor. With no roles or any hope of a role on the horizon, his wife, Sarah (Kate Hudson, 2012's The Reluctant Fundamentalist), supports him and their two kids yet remains by his side with a comforting word and a ‘You’ll get ‘em next time tiger’ attitude. The family’s financial problems force the couple to consider the unimaginable, removing the kids from their private Jewish school and sending them to public school. Oh, the horror.
Aidan’s immediate family is not making life any easier. Father Gabe (Mandy Patinkin) undergoes radical cancer treatments yet still finds it hard to provide Aidan with a kind word. His routine after updating everyone on his prognosis is to remind Aidan to get a real job and stop this nonsense acting business. Aidan’s brother, Noah (Josh Gad, 2012's Thanks for Sharing), is no help in caring for their father because he is too busy living in a trailer trolling Miley Cyrus’s twitter account. Noah is a case of a boy told he was a genius all of his life, believed it, so never took the time to really learn anything.
Wish I Was Here boils down to a haphazard bunch of parts that never coalesce as a whole. The brief auditions for acting roles are amusing yet fleeting. The deep one-on-ones with dad about death and God are plodding, and persistent speeches about childhood games playing superheroes is way overdone. Braff attempts to make Aidan feel like he has to save everybody, his dad, his brother, his wife getting harassed at work, and he ties it back to his childhood games in the woods. This back and forth does not come close to working.
Braff, who wrote and directed this film, had to wait 10 long years to get this project off the ground. He wanted final cut control and nobody would give it to him. Following in the footsteps of Veronica Mars, Braff went to Kickstarter and raised $3 million for the production taking a lot of heat in the process accused of siphoning funds away from true startup projects. The problem is not Kickstarter or the back and forth fighting on who has final cut control; the issue is the script. Studios were most likely reluctant to green light Wish I Was Here as it is because they saw the same problems. Wish I Was Here does not add up to much.
It is not a knock against Braff that he repeats himself. Garden State worked and connected with a lot of people; therefore, why not try to recreate the magic again with a new story? The new story is here, but it is not compelling. Braff has already proven he can create an effective film with the right material so I look forward to his next effort. As a wise man once said, “Good luck with the infinite abyss.”
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