There is something very subdued from Paul Dano’s directorial debut, Wildlife, that makes it a more meaningful movie than it probably is. I don’t know if there is a particular term for it other than it felt very Paul Dano-like. The man who never appears to age has delivered in a ton of movies you probably have never seen or left the theater scratching your head over (There Will Be Blood, Love & Mercy, Swiss Army Man, Little Miss Sunshine, Meek’s Cutoff, The Ballad of Jack and Rose). He plays some odd characters, so why wouldn’t his directing style be similar? Interestingly, the cast in his leads one of the most underrated and diverse actors of our generation in Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch, Prisoners), who is never afraid to take a risk in a role and is one of the most talented and underappreciated actresses of the same generation in Carey Mulligan (Shame, An Education) who prefers some of the safer roles. As an aside, Gyllenhaal and Mulligan (as of March 2019) have a combined two Oscar nominations to their names. Each should have been nominated at least three times by now…a common theme in my posts is how I think Gyllenhaal has been the sixth Best Actor in a five nomination award on at least three or four occasions. In fact, my very first six-pack post was on Jake Gyllenhaal’s Top 6 Performances. Mulligan is similar, having earned a nomination for An Education, but not one for Shame, Suffragette, Mudbound, Drive…she just has fewer acting credits to her name at this point than Gyllenhaal does. The talented Dano has zero Oscar nominations to his name but should have easily received one for There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis performances are like nothing else, but this young man battled the most talented actor of the last 30 years, scene for scene, all the way up to the brutal conclusion.

Wildlife is not an overwhelming movie, and there is less of an audience for it than one against it. It’s not going to make for a great date night movie. I guess it was lucky for many that this film did not last very long in theatres at all. I know it played at just a single movie theatre in my area and was only available for two or three weeks. Despite my desire to see it in the theater, I just wasn’t able to do so. It was definitely one of my most anticipated movies of 2018. I love Gyllenhaal and will watch all of his dramas. I don’t always love the weird roles he takes on, but I respect him for going outside of the norm of a leading man. Many won’t…though that seems to be fewer and fewer with each passing year.

Set in 1960 Montana, our story centers around the Brinson family. At the start of our story, father Jerry (Gyllenhaal) works as a golf pro at a local golf course. He’s a good worker, dedicated to the tasks at hand, but is a little too jovial with some of the club members to the point that gets him fired. Now you would expect that a fireable offense might be overly fraternizing with some of the locals who are there to golf. Or maybe partaking in a drink with some of the members after working hours. Or maybe flirting a little too much with the wives. But he wasn’t really doing any of that. It just seemed like he was a nice guy who might be a little more outgoing and talkative than his boss might have liked. And being in the 1960s, firing an employee without cause was much easier than it was to do in 2018. But perhaps, Jerry just isn’t able to take on social cues as one might expect. As he calls it, he becomes too “personable.” It might be that Jerry just doesn’t know when it is for him to be quiet and when he should speak up. It seems to be a theme in this movie and not just with his work. In fact, when Jerry is offered his job back shortly after his firing, he has too much pride to go back. It’s another theme with Jerry. He’s a man who doesn’t take change very well. Though it isn’t outright stated, similar situations have happened with Jerry before, resulting in his losing jobs. This is what landed the family in its current Montana house, a home that they rent out that sits at the bottom of a small town that borders the Rocky mountains.

The other two members of the Brinson family are the keys to our story, though. Though the movie is seen through 14-year-old protagonist son Joe (Ed Oxenbould – The Visit, Paper Planes), and we’ll talk about him for sure, but the standout in this film is his mother Jeanette (Mulligan). This film doesn’t necessarily need an antagonist for heartache to occur, but we have one simply because of our narrator. When Jeanette gets a job at the local YMCA to support her family, Jerry begins to distance himself, perhaps intentionally…more likely unintentionally. But through Joe’s eyes and ours, we see a Dad who cannot provide for his family and a mother who is willing to bear that load during a place in history where this was far more abnormal than it is 60 years later. What can a young high school boy think who comes home to find his father on the couch after school? All boys have an appreciation and disrespect for their fathers as they are becoming men. It obviously varies from one situation to another, but this is a universal truth. Neither our fathers nor our mothers will be the superheroes we need them to be for our entire lives. They are human. They are flawed. They will let us down, and some much more frequently than others.

Despite Jeanette’s protest, Jerry has accepted a job to fight the wild firefighters out west. It will keep him away from the period for an undetermined amount of time (the fires will burn for as long as they burn…you know?). Jerry is physically out of this movie pretty darn early, but his presence lingers throughout. Gyllenhaal needed just a few scenes to establish Jerry’s presence and all that he’s worth…for better or worse. Mulligan’s Jeanette is amazing is the dutiful wife who has lost hope, trust, and faith in her husband as a provider and a companion. A homemaker at heart, she probably dreamed of a large family in a huge home on a spacious piece of land. Instead, she’s left with a man who soothes his many anxieties and fears with both alcohol and irrational decisions. She pleads for him to take the job back at the golf course when offered back to him. But this is something that his brain will not even consider that possibility. He felt he was wronged, and when he is wronged, that’s it with him. It’s something that Jeanette just can’t deal with any longer. Her place in culture and how she is viewed by society must change with the number of unpaid bills piling up, a son who is on the verge of being a man himself, and a life that just isn’t what she envisioned and one that isn’t making her happy.

Before too long, Jeanette is gravitating towards the rich Warren (Bill Camp – 12 Years a Slave, Love & Mercy), a local man who is a good 20 years older than she is and certainly unlikely to make it through her attractiveness filter. He’s a widower with lots of money and even more time and makes promises that normally would feel uncomfortable to an audience member. Still, because he does seem to have a genuine kindness to him, we are surprisingly unsurprised by the actions of both characters. But what might seem okay, Jeanette and Warren are not so acceptable to Joe. He’s essentially watching his mother abandon not only her father but also him in the process. And the courting occurs right in front of him as if it is just expected to be okay.

This is where Oxenbould’s Joe excels. His innocence is lost early in this film…if he ever had any. Disinterested in football and clumsy with girls, Joe has no one to talk to about his problems. His father loves him but feels like he’s failing him and sees fighting the wildfires as a way to re-establish himself as the man of the house…doing a man’s job…a dangerous one…that can provide money for his family. His father disappears physically, but it’s his mother who disappears emotionally. She does things in front of Warren that no son should have to watch his father’s wife do. It’s nothing vulgar. It’s just inappropriate. But Jeanette is as lost as Jerry is, telling her son at one point, “If you have a better plan for me, tell me. Because I don’t have one.” The movie slowly changes from a strained relationship between husband and wife to a coming of age film in which a child from such a strained relationship should never have to bear witness to.  Joe’s part-time job as a photographer’s assistant seems more stable than anything his mother or father having going in their life. But while he tries to capture the “American Ideal” in each photo he takes, he really just wants a normal life in which his mom and dad love each other and have time to be a part of their son’s life and his own dreams.

Wildlife is a visionary movie for a first-time director. While this would not be celebrated as an accomplishment for a Clint Eastwood, a Ben Affleck, or a host of others in Hollywood who has established themselves as both excellent actors and directors, it is exquisite for a newbie. It’s almost a film I could see Woody Allen directing, yet somehow screwing up with too much witty banter, sentimentalism, or unneeded/unwanted humor. Thank goodness it wasn’t him behind the camera. What we needed was a Paul Dano…an actor who is well-known for diverse roles and a dedicated professional committed to making his debut effort memorable. He did just that. And while this movie will be much too slow for many people while many others will leave wondering what they just watched, I think my review will shed light on the latter and convince you that it needed the pace for its success.

But for as great as Dano’s direction was, it’s the four performances that radiated with me. Four clearly defined characters, none of which has the sense of self of really who they are or what they want or even what is appropriate. Four characters, one protagonist, and three slight antagonists because of how they are viewed through the eyes of our protagonist, who absolutely killed it in each scene that they share. I can’t think of a year where Wildlife would end on my End of Year Top Ten List, but I can think of many years (including 2018) where it is much closer to the Top 10 than in the middle of the pack. As a 42-year-old man in 2018 (early 2019), heavy dramas are my favorite genre, and this movie delivered on that level. Props to all of those involved in the making of Wildlife.

Plot 8/10
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 9.5/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 8.5/10
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