Demolition Review

8.5 out of 10

Demolition Cast:

Jake Gyllenhaal as Davis Mitchell

Naomi Watts as Karen Moreno

Heather Lind as Julia

Chris Cooper as Phil

Judah Lewis as Chris Moreno

C.J. Wilson as Carl

Wass Stevens as Jimmy

Polly Draper as Margot

Brendan Dooling as Todd Koehler

Stephen Badalamenti as Mickey 

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée

Story:

After his wife Julia is killed in a car accident, investment banker Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes on a journey of self-discovery… and destruction… that puts him into contact with Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), the customer service clerk at a vending machine company, and her young son Chris (Judah Lewis).

Analysis:

If there was a genre in which films like American Psycho, Fight Club and even Requiem for a Dream could easily be compartmentalized, then you might want to leave some space for Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition, which should fit nicely beside them. Unlike those other movies, Demolition is neither based on a work of fiction nor on a real person (as was the case with Vallée’s previous two films), but rather on an original screenplay by Bryan Sipe that explores how we react to death in its own unique way.

In the case of Jake Gyllenhaal’s Davis Mitchell, it’s not well. After he watches his wife Julia’s sudden death in a car wreck that he survives without a scratch, he loses some change in a vending machine at a hospital and starts writing a series of oversharing letters to the company to try and get a refund. These letters really touch Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), the customer service agent, who meekly reaches out to Davis, but only after stalking him for a while. By that time, Davis has started taking things apart, partially to see how they work but also to figure out how to fix them–some of this plan works better than others—which escalates into larger scale destruction as he realizes the catharsis that can be found in destroying things. Julia’s father Phil (Chris Cooper) is becoming more and more concerned with Davis’ behavior, but that concern soon turns to anger that his son-in-law’s laissez fair attitude and growingly haggard appearance is disrespecting his daughter’s memory. He’s probably right.

Demolition could easily have been made as a serious drama about a man dealing with his wife’s death and that would have been boring as hell. Taking a darkly comic approach as it does makes for a far more entertaining movie and the narrative told via Davis’ letters to Karen very much mirrors some of the films mentioned above in terms of tone.

Obviously, Demolition is a very different film for Vallée, but he thrives in this new environment, with certain aspects of the film syncing up with what he did in Wild, particularly in terms of exploring Davis’ memories of his dead wife (Heather Lind) and his visions of her which give the film a similarly-haunting quality. It’s quite a testament to the director’s talents that he’s able to skirt the line between quirky arthouse fare and everyday situations without missing a beat. 

If there’s one thing we can learn from this astounding roll that Gyllenhaal has been on in recent years is that he’s quickly becoming one of America’s most daring actors, taking on roles that challenge himself as much as they do our impressions of him. His character in Demolition is another coup on par with last year’s Nightcrawler, as he’s playing another off-the-wall and unhinged character whom we never know what they’ll do next, which seems more like how people act in real life than those we tend to see in films.

Once Karen and Davis actually meet in person, the film effortlessly transitions into a quirky romantic comedy of sorts, although it never goes full-on into that territory. The film starts to falter slightly when Davis starts spending more time with Karen’s teen son Chris and the two of them start getting into trouble, although it does lead to even more destruction and an amusing scene of Jake dancing through New York City to a song Chris turns him onto. How they were able to film this sequence without dozens of iPhone versions of Gyllenhaal’s crazy dancing appearing on YouTube is astounding. Things veer into darker territory from there. 

In some ways, Demolition also reminded me of Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (my favorite film of that year) in that it allows us to go on a journey with a character who only starts to discover his true self as he finds the courage to break away from societal norms. It’s quite a testament to the original nature of Sipe’s writing, which at its most extreme, delves into Charlie Kaufman and Todd Solonz territory, but the film never gets so inaccessible we’re unable to relate to Davis’ motivations. In other words, the filmmakers wisely are leaning more towards the Eternal Sunshine level of Kaufman weirdness than the inaccessibility of Synecdoche, New York.

The Bottom Line: 

Demolition won’t be for everyone because it’s very deliberately catering to a slightly-skewed sensibility rather than one that needs to have every thing neatly wrapped up in a tight bow. It also seems like the kind of movie that could easily grow into a cult classic once more people realize how genius it truly is.

Demolition opened the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, September 10, and will get a limited release by Fox Searchlight on April 8, 2016.