Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Writer: Bryan Sipe (Screenplay)
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, Judah Lewis, CJ Wilson, Polly Draper, Malachy Cleary
Plot: A successful investment banker struggles after losing his wife in a tragic car crash. With the help of a customer service rep and her young son, he starts to rebuild, beginning with the demolition of the life he once knew.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Nice Drama
Story: Demolition starts as we meet Davis (Gyllenhaal) our successful banker whose world comes crashing down when his wife is killed in a car accident. His boss and father in law Phil (Cooper) tries to help him through the loss, but Davis finds himself spending time writing to a vending company that failed to give him a snack, moments after his wife’s death. Davis gives them full story on what is going on in his life, because he isn’t showing the sense of loss everyone expects him to.
Davis finds himself getting obsessed with fixing things that are broken by taking them apart, which leaves a string of broken appliances, but soon he starts having conversations with a customer service agent Karen (Watts) who was moved by his letters.
As Davis connects more with Karen the two start to get into a relationship as Davis looks to rebuild his life and move on with everything.
Thoughts on Demolition
Characters/Performance – Davis is a successful banker who life get turned upside down, he struggles with the loss of his wife which finds him determined to just destroy things that need to be fixed which puts his current life in danger of going off course. Karen is the single mother that befriends Davis once he starts complaining about his experience with the vending machine. She is undecided where she wants her life to go but sees something in Davis that she wants to help. Phil is the father-in-law and boss that wants help him but is getting tired of his destructive nature.
Performance wise, Jake Gyllenhaal is great in this leading role carrying the film with his performance, Naomi Watt is great in the supporting role with Chris Cooper who always gives us good performances.
Story – The story here focuses on one man dealing with the loss of his wife, we see how he enters into a strange reason of just wanting to break stuff to get through the grief. This is a strange way to vision this but it clearly the best way to show us how difficult it would be to lose a loved one.
Settings – Each setting shows us just how difficult the life Davis is now living through which is important for us to see.
Final Thoughts – This is a good drama about grief and dealing with it all in your own way, it does show how difficult it can be but how important it can be to let someone go through it in their own way.
Overall: Nicely placed drama that went slightly under the radar.
Rating
