Demolition is “one of those movies.” I really admired this film, enjoyed it thoroughly, but only about as much as the filmmakers intended. This isn’t a happy or easy piece of work, which is probably why the critical response has been mixed, but I was struck by the honesty at play here, and how the screenplay presented an inherently flawed and rather unlikable lead character as the story’s entry-point, and how the film really centers on people in emotional flux, and how simple friendship can be the key ingredient to potential and hopeful catharsis. The more I think about the film, the more I really like it, but that’s not too surprising, because the director, Jean-Marc Vallee, has only made strong motion pictures (The Young Victoria, Dallas Buyer’s Club, and Wild) that are concerned with deep and complicated lead characters, and which allow for his actors to really cut loose and get invested in their roles. And in Demolition, the absolutely on-fire Jake Gyllenhaal delivers another robust, completely engaged and committed performance, this time as a young widower who has to actually learn to love his wife before he can begin to grieve. Bryan Sipe’s theatrical and movie-movie screenplay reminds in many instances of 21 Grams, and while not as overwhelming or pulverizing as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s picture, Demolition hits hard and often, with a tendency to show more than tell, which I really appreciated.
Vallee is a very visual filmmaker, given to quick-fire editing patterns in all of his work (the editing in Demolition reminds of the showier passages in Wild, which I loved), and here, by employing a very sleek visual aesthetic, he and his technicians were able to fully emphasize the money and the empty success that all of the characters have attained. Smoothly shot by Vallee’s regular cinematographer Yves Bélanger and crisply edited by Jay M. Glen who never allows a scene to go on too long, the film has a lightning-quick pace which is interesting considering the heavy dramatics that comprise the story. Chris Cooper is outstanding in his scenes with Gyllenhaal, and Naomi Watts is reliably effective as a woman who gets caught in Gyllenhaal’s orbit, and enters into a non-sexual, mutually beneficial relationship that helps the two of them get over some serious bumps in their lives. And in the film’s most surprising subplot, Gyllenhaal develops an interesting friendship with Watts’ son, played with sharp sass by Judah Lewis, which yields some unique laughs and moments of introspectiveness that were very surprising; all of this stuff could have served as the basis for an entirely different film. Demolition also contains one of the best and most subtle references to a likely college rapist in training, with the gross reminder that wealth and status can get you anything in this day and age. This is a purposefully frayed film with no easy answers, and because of that, I can certainly see how it won’t work for some. But for me, this is the sort of movie I’m always interested in experiencing.
Podcasting Them Softly 