Demolition Movie Review & Film Summary (2016) | Roger Ebert

Go through hell and look cool doing it. Thats the vibe Igot from the poster for "Demolition," which uses a neatly quartered (with onesegment slightly askew) portrait of its male lead, Jake Gyllenhaal, sportingexpensive shades and wearing expensive headphones. Is that an overly simplisticreading of the actual film? Yes. But its also true that the movie, costarringNaomi Watts and directed by Jean-Marc Valle, doesnt exactly shy away fromthose semiotics.

Demolition opens with Gyllenhaals Davis Mitchell and wifeJulia (Heather Lind) driving around New York City and having what seems to be atetchy power-couple morning. Hes preoccupied, shes frustrated, and theyre ona phone call with her parents. The viewer cant get a read on the marriage:its strained is a good guess, but whether its truly crummy or justcircumstantially challenged is impossible to tell. Speculation becomes mootwhen an auto accident leaves Julia dead and Davis without a scratch.

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Davis is zombied out. He cant get an M&Ms bag from thehospitals vending machine, and he writes an uncharacteristically confessionalletter to the vending machines parent company. He cant cry at his wifesfuneral. His father-in-law Phil (Chris Cooper), whos also his boss at afinancial shark tank, advises him to take apart his life and reexamine it.Davis, whos also found that he can no longer lie effectively, takes thiscounsel literally, and begins to physically dismantle various appliances. Andhe continues pouring whats left of his heart out to vending machine customerservice, whose human form is that of Naomi Watts.

If Davis prior life was a cold slate-grey corporate mess,the life of Watts' Karen is a lukewarm, pot-haze suffused suburban one, completewith a teen son (Judah Lewis) whos a handful of rock and roll attitude. You can tell theextent to which this whole movies narrative and its attendant lessons are big timebits of boomer wish fulfillment contrivance by the fact that it offers up, inthis day and age, a fifteen-year-old whos obsessively into Eric Burdon, DavidBowie, and vintage Free. The kid, of course, becomes an eager accomplice asDavis, looking for answers, takes down his entire house. In which he does,indeed, discover an important clue.

The yuppie-finding-his-soul scenario is a very old and notparticularly compelling one, and the fact that this film borrows elements fromRegarding Henry, American Beauty, Saul Bellows Herzog, and the JimCarrey Liar, Liar, for heavens sake, does not exactly redound to itsbenefit.

However, Valle directs with no small amount of verve andenergy, as if he genuinely believes he can bring something new to thisparticular table. The actors show similar commitment, with Gyllenhaal conveyinginner emptiness and/or confusion in a smartly understated way. While Watts isreliably vulnerable, its Judah Lewis as her son Chris who does the heavieremotional lifting. The scenario does contain a couple of unexpected stings inits tale, which almost makes the inevitable redemption payoff play a littleless pat than it might have under different circumstances. But not THAT muchless pat.

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Demolition Movie Review & Film Summary (2016) | Roger Ebert