Wildlife

Wildlife – (dir. Paul Dano)
West Mall 7 Theatres – Doors Open 6:00pm – Film Begins 6:30pm
TRT: 104 min
Rating: PG13 (for thematic material including a sexual situation, smoking, language)
Genre: Drama, Book-to-Screen

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan

Film Summary: Elegantly adapted from Richard Ford’s novel of the same name, Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan (MUDBOUND, AN EDUCATION) delivers a career-best performance as Jeanette, a complex woman whose self-determination and self-involvement disrupts the values and expectations of a 1960s nuclear family. Fourteen-year-old Joe played by newcomer Ed Oxenbould, is the only child of Jeanette (Mulligan) and Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) — a housewife and a golf pro — in a small town in 1960s Montana. Nearby, an uncontrolled forest fire rages close to the Canadian border, and when Jerry loses his job–and his sense of purpose–he decides to join the cause of fighting the fire, leaving his wife and son to fend for themselves. Suddenly forced into the role of an adult, Joe witnesses his mother’s struggle as she tries to keep her head above water. With precise details and textures of its specific time and place, WILDLIFE commits to the viewpoint of a teenage boy observing the gradual dissolution of his parents’ marriage.

What the critics are saying:

It’s beautifully designed and well-acted, and Mulligan’s tense work as a mother who sometimes seems to be the stronger parent and sometimes the more dangerous one is exquisite.

– Linda Holmes, NPR​​

An accomplished, moving piece of filmmaking, one that cares about its characters and trusts its performers.

– Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

Dano magnifies the source material by pulling out extraordinary performances from his cast, most particularly Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan and newcomer Ed Oxenbould.

– Clayton Davis, Awards Circuit

Wildlife is at once loquacious and laconic, a film in which simple words hold unspoken and unequivocal power, and the space between banal utterances become chasms.

– Greg Cwik, Slant Magazine

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