WASHINGTON 鈥� He directed Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto to Oscars in the human rights tale “Dallas Buyers Club” (2013) before landing Reese Witherspoon another Oscar nomination in the hiking journey “Wild” (2014).
Now, filmmaker聽Jean-Marc Vall茅e聽directs聽Jake Gyllenhaal in the unique project “Demolition.”
It follows Manhattan investment banker Davis (Gyllenhaal) who has an odd way of grieving the recent death of his wife Julia (Heather Lind). While his in-laws聽Phil (Chris Cooper) and Margot (Polly Draper) are heartbroken over the loss of their daughter, Davis shows virtually no emotion at all.
His bizarre way of coping is dismantling聽appliances and carefully organizing the parts on the floor. This fascination with the inner-workings of machinery causes him to聽write a series of obsessive complaint letters to a vending machine company, catching the eye of聽pothead customer service rep Karen (Naomi Watts). Gradually, Davis grows closer to Karen’s misfit teenage son, Chris (Judah Lewis), teaching him the proper use of the “F” word and聽coaching him through tough growing pains.
Will these encounters help聽Davis to heal? Will he make peace with his father-in-law, who’s also his boss? Will he support his wife’s聽memorial scholarship? Will he聽be able to show any emotion at all?
Rather than a聽serious聽drama like聽Krzysztof Kieslowski’s聽“Three Colors: Blue” (1993), “Demolition” picks聽a tough needle to thread:聽a聽quirky comedy about death that seeks sympathy for a grieving widower who doesn’t grieve the traditional way.聽But it is in this offbeat nature that the film finds its charm, making us laugh out loud with comedic timing, then whacking us with heavy emotions.
If anyone could pull it off it’s Gyllenhaal, who remains one of the most underrated actors of the 21st century.聽Find me another star with as much versatility over the past 15 years: hallucinating聽criminals (鈥淒onnie Darko鈥�), macho聽troops (鈥淛arhead鈥�), closeted cowboys (鈥淏rokeback Mountain鈥�), time travelers (鈥淪ource Code鈥�), obsessive journalists (鈥淶odiac鈥�), pharmacy salesmen (鈥淟ove & Other Drugs鈥�), gritty cops (鈥淓nd of Watch鈥�),聽twitchy detectives (“Prisoners”), creepy paparazzi (鈥淣ightcrawler鈥�), tortured聽doppelg盲ngers (“Enemy”) and punch-drunk聽boxers (鈥淪outhpaw鈥�).
In “Demolition,” Gylleenhaal straps a聽risky project on his back and daringly carries it to the finish line, screaming Heart’s “Crazy on You” in the car, swinging from聽the聽rafters of a garage, bobbing to earbud music on the New York subways and taking a sledgehammer to his most pristine possessions.
The performance plays out like a comedy version of聽Michael Douglas in “Falling Down” (1993) mixed with a little Ron Livingston destroying the fax machine in “Office Space” (1999) and Richard Dreyfuss dumping a mound of dirt in his living room in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977).
Still, the best comparison is聽Kevin Spacey in聽“American Beauty” (1999), which similarly cast Cooper as a father figure and whose director later worked with Gyllenhaal on “Jarhead.”聽But there are also several important similarities to Spacey’s character, Lester Burnham, as Gyllenhaal smiles in the face of death, smashes his corporate existence and helps adolescents聽struggling with suburban identities.
This adolescent subplot proves that young聽Judah Lewis has a bright future ahead of him, tackling very complex emotions with simple props in a mirror.聽His grappling with the “f word” is far more realistic than the over-the-top聽cursing children聽in last year’s remake of “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (2015). All the while,聽Gyllenhaal mines real romantic chemistry with Lewis’ on-screen mother, Naomi Watts, who聽recalls the best qualities of聽Audrey Tautou’s “Amelie” (2001) in her distant, anti-social flirtations.
Screenwriter Bryan Sipe is also one to watch, finding the humor in聽human nature right from the聽opening scene: “Stop repeating what I say just to make it sound like you’re listening.” The script then subverts our expectations by giving聽Peanut M&Ms the same level of importance as a hospital death. Its comedic聽timing is best on display in Davis’ outside-the-box interpretations of聽inappropriate situations, such as his聽delayed response to his father-in-law about a bar’s expensive cocktails.
Sipe’s script also boasts聽a refreshing, postmodern self-awareness as Gyllenhaal narrates his letter: “It’s a metaphor.聽I’m the uprooted tree. No, I’m the storm that uprooted the tree. No, I’m the cold front that caused the storm that uprooted the tree 鈥� nah, that’s too much,”聽crumpling the paper.
In this way, Sipe reins in his own attempts at metaphor, giving us just enough without going overboard. His humanistic charm most recently gave some refreshing punch to his聽adaptation of an otherwise standard Nicholas Sparks novel “The Choice” (2016).聽But like “The Choice,” the script starts stronger than it ends, giving into some cliches down the stretch. While some of the twists work, others take the easy way out, building to an Act Three resolution that leaves loose ends dangling.
This will no doubt send audiences out of the theater polarized. Plot-orientated folks may feel cheated out of neat closure, while those with more thematic tastes will find the symbols聽fitting. The vibe isn’t for everybody, but in an age of so many spinoffs, it聽refreshingly聽marches to the beat of its own drum.
Hats off to Vall茅e, who delivers another compelling character study filled with directorial flair. Like the flashes of Laura Dern in “Wild,” we again get acid聽flashbacks of the deceased.聽Background characters move聽in reverse motion while Gyllenhaal聽moves forward, symbolizing his going against the crowd. Even in聽more patient moments of mise-en-scene,聽the聽One World Trade Center stands proudly in the background as other decaying buildings undergo controlled demolitions across the river.
In our post-9/11 world where humanity seems stuck in a聽numb,聽apathetic聽state of post traumatic stress, “Demolition” sings with allegory.聽There is a degree of thematic originality here 鈥� the breaking down and rebuilding of objects 鈥斅爐hat damn near approaches transcendent. Aren’t we all just human beings who tear ourselves down, only to rebuild piece by piece? Isn’t every good character study聽an investigation into what makes us tick? Isn’t demolition necessary to find what matters in the rubble?
Life, like the most聽compelling movies, is聽a glorious gift with some assembly required.
