Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a successful investment banker, working in his father-in-law Phil’s (Chris Cooper) firm. When his wife Julia (Heather Lind, TURN: Washington’s Spies) dies in a sudden car accident, Davis feels nothing—he is more concerned with the fact that the vending machine in the hospital waiting room didn’t give him his M&Ms, than the idea that his wife died ten minutes earlier. David writes a letter to the Champion Vending Company, in which he proceeds to tell his entire life story, including the death of his wife and his lack of emotional response. He starts to reevaluate his life to figure out why he feels so numb. Davis continues to write daily letters to the vending machine company, not expecting any response. However, he soon receives a call from customer service employee Karen (Naomi Watts), who was moved and intrigued by his story. Davis searches for Karen, wanting to meet in person, but she plays coy while doing a bit of stalking of her own.
When Julia was alive Davis often didn’t really pay attention to the world around him and the things his wife said, but now Davis is on a mission to be more real and pay more attention to everything life has to offer. In his question to figure out how life works Davis starts literally dissembling everything that’s broken in his life, studies what makes it work, and then tries to re-build it. This becomes Davis’ new obsession, and Phil is concerned with his son-in-law’s erratic new behavior. Phil has been trying to preserve his daughter’s legacy by creating a foundation in his daughter’s name, and he’s also growing increasingly annoyed by Davis’ lack of concentration and participation in this effort.
Meanwhile, as Davis is tearing apart his own life, he meets Karen’s foul-mouthed, dark & twisted son Chris (Judah Lewis, Game of Silence). Together, they might be able to teach each other a thing about life and how to feel again.
I tend to enjoy films more when they have a concrete story arc. This film is more of a character study that follows an emotional arc. I think is does this quite well, and this will definitely appeal to some viewers, but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. However, the acting is quite strong—Chris Cooper is fantastic; Gyllenhaal gives a fun, seemingly-emotionless performance; Judah Lewis has a quite engaging dynamic with Gyllenhaal; and Naomi Watts gives a nice quirky and dramatic performance.
Once Davis decides to reexamine his life, he becomes quite blunt and says and does exactly what’s on his mind. This leads to some really humorous narration and character interactions. I found Davis’ father-like relationship with Chris to be a really interesting dynamic—it’s hard to tell which one of them is less mature and yet they both seem to have something to tech the other. That said, I found Davis’ increasingly self-destructive (and even more so, physically destructive) nature more and more frustrating as the film went along. Chris Cooper is excellent as the grieving father trying to deal with the loss of his daughter, and I really sympathized with his growing frustration over Davis’ contempt for the situation. And I especially found watching Davis demolish his life and beautiful home to be hard to watch. However, those who are more interested in the emotional arc of the film will definitely get a payoff by the end.
I originally watched the film on the included iTunes Digital HD copy, and then also checked it out again on the DVD to compare the picture and sound quality. Both versions are quite impressive. The film is very beautiful at times and the video presentation is clear, detailed and vibrant. The audio track provides clear dialogue, an excellent presentation of the film’s soundtrack, while the stereo and surround channels are utilized to add some depth to the physical destruction Davis brings about. Unfortunately, only minimal bonus features are included on the disc—a photo gallery and a trailer for the film. (Neither of these were included on the iTunes copy.)
What’s Included:
Film: (1:41:23)
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DVD:
- 480p / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
- Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Surround Dolby Digital 2.0, French Surround Dolby Digital 2.0
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
- Closed Captioned
- Digital HD Copy redeemable via iTunes, Flixster (UltraViolet), Google Play or Vudu (UltraViolet)
Digital Copy (Redemption Deadline 7/19/19):
Extras:
- Gallery (2:00)
Use the remote control to manually advance through this gallery of 24 behind-the-scenes photos, or allow the slideshow to auto-advance every 5 seconds. - Theatrical Trailer (2:08)
- Sneak Peek (16:34)
Play All or select from trailers for “Discover Digital HD”, A Bigger Splash, The Revenant, Wild, Birdman, Brooklyn, Mistress America and Youth.
Final Thoughts:
While I initially enjoyed the humor in the film, the more the film went on, I found myself getting increasingly annoyed with and frustrated by the Davis character, rather than being inspired by his new lease on life. This is not meant to be a bash against the performances as they were quite strong, and perhaps this frustration with Davis is what the filmmakers were shooting for. The main arc of the film centers around Davis’ emotional journey rather than some specific narrative. The DVD presentation is quite strong and the release also includes a Digital HD copy of the film. I would recommend a rental first before a blind buy as I don’t think this film will necessarily appeal to everyone—it has more of an indie/artsy feel to it. And, due to the lack of bonus features, fans of the film may wish to wait for the price to drop a bit.
