Writer: Robin Swicord (Screenplay)
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Ian Anthony Dale, Jennifer Garner, Beverly D’Angelo, Jason O’Mara, Pippa Bennett-Warner
Plot: A man’s nervous breakdown causes him to leave his wife and live in his attic for several months.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Hidden Gem of the Year?
Story: Wakefield starts as Howard Wakefield’s (Cranston) normal day is turned upside down through a serious of events surrounding a power outage, returning home he finds his garage crawling with racoons and in the attic of the garage he gets a perfect view of the house.
Deciding to watch how his wife Diana (Garner) reacts to his disappearance, Howard decides to hide in the attic to watch how life is going without him, this gives us the perfect people watching experience. We are left to see how long Howard keeps this up and he starts to enjoy being away from the responsibilities of life.
Thoughts on Wakefield
Characters – Howard Wakefield is a successful businessman, husband and father but one day he decides to step away from his life and hide in his garage attic, watching his family’s life continue without him. The whole film is told through his eyes, the reasons behind what he did, the looking back at the stories of his life and how he sees moments in his life with him missing. Ben Jacobs is a man that Howard believes is going to start hitting on his wife, Diana is the wife Howard has left to watch over, her strength comes through as she must cope without Howard as she must raise the two children.
Performance – Bryan Cranston is fantastic in this role as we get to see him carry this movie single handled making us want to see every single scene to see what he does or says next. Ian Anthony Dale isn’t as involved as you believe he would be and Jennifer Garner is good in her role which mostly is being watched doing everyday routines.
Story – The story follows the idea of a businessman, husband and father just walks away from his life to see what wold happen without him. The whole story is told through his eyes as he explains the motives and how he looks at different moments of his life that made him think about changing. This is a film that keeps your attention from start to finish as you just want to know what he will do next.
Settings – A large part of this movie is set within the attic and here we get to see the world that Howard creates for himself, we also get to see the state of things outside this world as he becomes a hobo.
Scene of the Movie – The touching moments with the down syndrome neighbours.
I always get annoyed by one thing in a movie, this is that moment – How did nobody at least look for Howard in anyway? I mean we get a report on the news but we never see anyone actually looking around the house.
Final Thoughts – This must go down as one of the gems of the years, watching Bryan Cranston people watch is a must watch and you just want to know where things will go.
Overall: Gem of the year.
Rating