Demolition **** (2015, Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, C J Wilson, Judah Lewis) – Movie Review

Jake Gyllenhaal is in his acting and personal prime in a perfect performance as investment banker Davis, who life is in deep meltdown after losing his wife in a car crash. He works for his father-in-law Phil (Chris Cooper), who is devastated too, hurt and angry, and uncomprehending at Davis’s downward spiralling behaviour. The father’s grief is all there on the surface, in Cooper’s pained stare and raging eyes. He just gets on with the job and with his life. He has to. There’s nowhere else to go.

Davis handles his grief differently. He doesn’t handle it at all. To let go, he just chills, freezes over. In his frozen state, Davis fixates on all the wrong stuff – a hospital vending machine that won’t give him the candy bar he’s paid for.

He starts to write a series of increasingly nutty, rambling and confessional letters to the vending machine company that catch the attention of its customer service representative, single mom Karen (Naomi Watts), who, weirdly calls him up in the wee small hours, touched by his fifth mammoth letter.

As one of them stalks the other, they start to form a most unlikely connection. Karen’s boyfriend Carl (C J Wilson) and young gay teenage son Chris (Judah Lewis) are naturally less than impressed.

Davis finds you have to demolish everything for a chance to reconstruct your life. He’s demolition man! It turns out he can put everyone back together again. Nutty, destructive behaviour rules! Davis may be pulled down by death, but he has the life force.

Demolition takes the long, scenic route, but finally it turns into a redemption story. It is kind of fragile in places and it takes great actors to make it work. But it has them!

OK, admittedly this movie has a niche appeal, but its box-office tanking in America is just shameful. It has a little bit of American Beauty going for it. Gyllenhaal, Watts, and Cooper are all sensationally good, and, after an annoying start, Lewis grows on you. Then you realise, that’s the role.

I don’t agree that it is confused or full of clichés. On the contrary, there’s loads to think about in this smart, intelligent, beguiling movie that just shouts ‘see me again!’

Demolition comes from Montreal-born Jean-Marc Vallée, the director of a mixed bag of movies – The Young Victoria (2009), Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and Wild (2014). The talented writer of the screenplay is Bryan Sipe.

Filming began on 15 September 2014 in New York City, with scenes at J F Kennedy Airport, on the shores of Coney Island and on Greenwich Street in NYC. It grossed only $1.1 million in its opening weekend, 15th at the box office and got mixed reviews in the US.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review
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