An early bit of advice often given to young screenwriters is to create “actor bait.” Write flawed, compelling characters that star actors like Jake Gyllenhaal cannot say no to. They want to play challenging roles that give them a chance to flex their thespian muscles and win Academy Awards. But on that same note, writers must be careful not to compromise the realism of a screenplay’s plot. And so, despite rookie scribe Bryan Sipe’s best intentions, Demolition merely feels like a vehicle for Gyllenhaal to break sh*t on his way to the red carpet.
Director Jean-Marc Vallee is partially responsible for this as well. At times, the script borders the edge of complete implausibility, but it’s not helped by Vallee’s emphasis on metaphorical devices. As with Sipe, you can certainly understand the method behind the madness, but ultimately it proves to be a bit too extra. I had hope for Vallee’s direction due to his previously acclaimed work, Dallas Buyer’s Club and Wild, and occasionally his brilliance shines through. Ultimately, however, those sporadic triumphs are mostly credited Gyllenhaal’s exceptional performance.
Gyllenhaal plays investment banker Davis Mitchell, a seemingly normal and successful white collar worker who proceeds to lose his mind after his wife’s (Heather Lind) sudden death in a car crash. For some reason unbeknownst to him, Mitchell can’t seem to appropriately grieve - at least by society’s standards. He tries to force himself to cry at the funeral and shows up to work the very next day as if nothing happened. Befuddled as to why he can’t properly convey emotion, he decides to take his father-in-law’s (Chris Cooper) allegorical advice and literally starts to deconstruct his life. Next thing you know he’s smashing his multi-million dollar home to pieces with a sledgehammer.
Mitchell also finds another unique way to vent. After a hospital vending machine’s peanut M&M’s get jammed on the night his wife dies, he decides to pen a series of extremely confessional complaint letters to the company in hopes of getting a refund. Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), a customer service rep, is so moved by the writing that she decides to contact Mitchell and the pair begin an unlikely faux-romance. This leads to Mitchell striking up a friendship with her bi-curious and possibly psychopathic teenage son (Judah Lewis), all while Mitchell’s relationship with his deceased wife’s family continues to fall apart.
I won’t go into specific detail and spoil certain scenes, but Demolition back-and-forth veers from being refreshingly compelling to utterly ridiculous. Half of the plot points in this movie would simply just not happen in reality. But with that being said, you have to admire Vallee’s bold attempt to paint the emotion of grief in one of the most honest ways possible. As frustrating as the cinematic experience can be, you walk out of the theater understanding that grief, much like love, is unexplainable. It affects everyone in different ways that sometimes just doesn’t make any sense. I suspect that this is the true message of Demolition, and so in that regard maybe it does work as a film. You’ll definitely have to suspend your disbelief, but perhaps after multiple viewings Demolition will be recognized as an honestly brilliantly piece of filmmaking.
Demolition arrives in theaters on April 8. Stay tuned to iDigitalTimes for continuing coverage of SXSW 2016.
