Review: Demolition (2016)

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Jake Gyllenhaal is always an interesting actor to watch onscreen. When given the right material in films like Donnie Darko, Nightcrawler and Brokeback Mountain, he shines, projecting vulnerability and pathos. He has a lot of range and can play extremes convincingly from silly and sympathetic as in Bubble Boy to slightly damaged but still relatable as in Darko, to full-on psychotic as in Enemy. But for every one of those films, there is a Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time or Love & Other Drugs showing us that it takes the right kind of director to motivate Gyllenhaal into projecting that force on screen. He has been on a hot streak the past few years with Nightcrawler, Southpaw and once again, now, in Jean-Marc Vallée’s latest feature, Demolition. Vallée made quite the name for himself with 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, which touches on some of the same themes explored here in his latest film.

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Gyllenhaal plays Davis Mitchell, a successful, but emotionally detached, investment banker in Manhattan. One day while driving to work with his wife, their car is struck by another without warning. Davis’s wife is killed by the impact at the hospital while he is injury free. As he tries to process this event, he deposit $1.50 in a vending machine to try to get a pack of Peanut Butter M&M’s only to have it hang on the hook. Distraught, he takes the vending machine’s identification number and address and starts to pen a complaint letter to the vending machine’s customer service department. But somewhere in this attempt to lodge his complaint, he starts to open up in a way that he can’t to his equally distraught father-in-law, Phil (Chris Cooper), or his family or co-workers. His letters start telling the story of life; his dissatisfaction with his job, the white lies he tells in his everyday life, the fact that he feels he didn’t love his wife. One night, he gets a call from the vending machine’s customer service representative, a widowed single mother named Karen Moreno (played by Naomi Watts) who lets him know she received his letters and they make her cry. Karen is also broken and empathizes with the sense of ennui and loneliness Davis feels but is unable to express. His only outlet is to “demolish” the world around him; to take things apart in his life and try to put them back together to see how they work. It is here that the film finds it primary focus, in examining how important human relationships are in our daily lives. The void of loss can be a powerful thing and take people in unusual directions. While Davis finds solace in spending his days destroying houses with a sledgehammer, his father-in-law is determined to set up a scholarship for his late daughter, so that
she has a legacy and that somehow her senseless death can have some meaning.

What makes Demolition works is the fact that its telling a universal story about the loss of self and identity someone feels under trying and tragic circumstance. Karen’s son Chris (played by Judah Lewis) acts out at school and finds his release in being a rebel, but its just a veneer to mask his inner pain and insecurity. Likewise, Karen is trapped in a loveless relationship and is trying to be someone she is not to cling to a sense of structure and stability. It has its moments of magical realism and dark humor as Davis tries to make sense of his pain and loss and comes to terms with what he has gone through. The film also benefits by not positing Watts’ character Karen as a replacement love interest for Davis’ lost wife. They are using each other to work through the issues in their life as people and move forward.

Demolition is an excellent film and quite a showcase for Watts and Gyllenhaal and especially for Judah Lewis. Definitely worth seeking out.