Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Judah Lewis, Chris Cooper, Wass Stevens.
I don't know where to start simply because I have been inspired and currently distracted by my own thoughts. Yes, inspired by Jean-Marc Vallee's wonderful, yet strange tale of self exploration. It's something I can kinda relate to and I'm pretty sure many of us can too to some degree.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays Davis, a man who has been totally blindsided by the normality of life, becoming complacent and neglectful of the happenings around him. Disconnected, the death of his wife starts a spiral of events that would lead him down a childlike road of rediscovery.
He gets a sudden spark of new found curiosity which leads him to deconstruct, destroy and disengage with the ordinariness of his lifestyle. All the while, inadvertently affecting those around him, pushing away the old and replenishing with the new.
It isn't just him we witness go through the motions but we see the emotional impact HE has on his In-laws, in particular his Father-In-Law, Phil (Chris Cooper) and the impulsive attraction with his new friend Karen and her troubled son Chris. His In-laws go through grief, anger, confusion and frustration and forgiveness while he becomes borderline crazy and eventually reaches his grief.
Stemming from Davis' elaborate letter of complaint to the vending machine company regarding his non-receivable peanut M&Ms, he opens up, writing an honest, unconventional complaint and customer service lady, Karen (Naomi Watts) can't help but inappropriately attempts contact with Davis' which blooms into a joyous friendship and her character symbolises that innocent attraction I believe many of us seek. As their friendship grows, a bond forms between her son (Judah Lewis) and Davis, bringing more excitement, discovery and demolition.
It's great that the relationship Karen and Davis share is not sexually but purely on attraction. Taking time to get to know each other, talking and listening, having sleep-overs. It's an element of real romance that isn't portrayed in other films very well, or ignored. Maybe a sense of longing they both have had for a very long time, even through marriage. Leaves you with a lot of 'what ifs'.
It's brilliantly written, well scripted and the whole cast bring it to life accompanied by a great soundtrack. It's quirky, thought-provoking and inspiring.
Running Time: 8
The Cast: 9
Performance: 9
Direction: 9
Story: 9
Script: 9
Creativity: 8
Soundtrack: 8
Job Description: 10
The Extra Bonus Point: 10 for urging to want to buy a Transformers lunch box again and to inspire me to blog about touchy feely thing.
89% 9/10
