Movie Breakdown: Wildlife

Pre-Screening Stance:

Paul Dano is a great actor, but is he any good at directing?  Judging by the trailers for Wildlife, it seems like he may be.

Post-Screening Ramble:

Wildlife begins by introducing you to your new favorite 1950s family!  Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) lives in Montana with his wife, Jeanette (Carey Mulligan), and their 14-year old son, Joe (Ed Oxenbould).  Jerry works (as a golf-pro at a local course), Jeanette takes care of the house, and Joe goes to school.  Everything is fine and as it’s supposed to be (according to the times), but then Jerry gets fired.  Unable to find work – and much to the chagrin of his wife – Jerry decides to go and help fight a massive forest fire that’s ripping across Montana, thus leaving Jeanette and Joe on their own.  The story from here is a good one that essentially follows Joe as he slowly processes that his parents aren’t perfect people, but the real reason to see the film is Carey Mulligan’s Jeanette.  Right from the get-go she’s frazzled by Jerry’s departure, and she only further loses her grip as things tumble along.  She starts challenging Joe and pushing him to grow up, but she isn’t doing it to help him, it’s more that she laments his youth and inability to comfort her.  She wants to lean on the boy and believe him when he says that things will be fine, but the evisceration of her world has her in a tailspin she can’t recover from.  This leads to her attempting to take on a wealthy, older man, but she’s such a wreck mentally and emotionally that it never has a chance of being anything more than a well-off guy taking advantage of a woman in a desperate situation.  Despite the manic nature of her actions, Jeanette is actually doing what she can to keep her head above water, and I think that’s why Wildlife works.  It’s easy to think of life in the 1950s America as idyllic, but as the film shows, when things stopped being picture perfect, individuals (especially women) didn’t have many options to make their situations better.

Good work, Dano.

One Last Thought:

I wonder why Paul Dano didn’t play the the role of Jerry in this movie?  He actually would have been a great fit.