Wilson

When titular anti-hero Wilson (Woody Harrelson) says suburbia is a "living death," he could also be talking about himself as a curmudgeon dissing everyone he sees while crying for the family life he's never had. That extreme tonal shift characterizes his bifurcated personality and the film itself.

In other words, this film is so deaf that it is almost impossible to see it as the comedy the producers would like us to experience. Although Harrelson brings his patented innocent bad-boy persona, he can't save the result from mediocre dialogue and inscrutable characterization.

As it all begins, Wilson's voice-over is larded with misanthropy spread over the landscape from a sweet dog lover (Sandy Olan) to any young person he meets, except his long lost daughter, Claire (Isabella Amara). The latter supposedly transforms his life after he seeks her out.

Fawning over his indifferent daughter emphasizes his lack of insight, despite his constant chatter about his disappointment with modern life, frequently spot on, if not unkind. His attempt to reunite with his estimable former wife, Pippi (Laura Dern), shows the other side of solid insight. By the end of the film, I felt I was battered from one side of the ring to the other with no real winner and a definite loser in Wilson.

Jack Nicholson did a remarkable job as a reforming curmudgeon in About Schmidt, as did a score of fine actors playing Scrooge. The film Wilson just doesn't fit because it lacks character focus. That Woody brings the requisite jaded innocence is a given; that the screenplay gives him nothing to hang the character on is a flaw in an otherwise interesting concept about the middle-aged pessimist turned optimist.

Because this film is adapted by the graphic novelist, Daniel Clowes, who created the protagonist, it's fair to say Clowes caught the cartoon-like irony of the comic book but lost the sense of character consistency so much a hallmark of a mature novel set to film. If you want bleak and dark with a light touch, the work of Todd Solondz would fit your needs. Clowes not so much.

Miscast or something. I felt awkward watching it. Neither of the leads seemed even vaguely realistic nor did the plot. It was all trying too hard. I hated everything about it right down to Harrelson saying the name Pippi.

A close view to people they try manage their unbearable lives. An interesting scenario with turns and Woody as always great, simple and to the point. Good playing of the cast. When everything is lost, always there is something, even fake,that gives meaning to our lives. A good film makes you search deeper. Not for under 15.

'WILSON': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

A comedy-drama, based on the 2010 graphic novel (of the same name) by Daniel Clowes (who also wrote the screenplay). The film was directed by Craig Johnson, who also helmed the 2014 indie hit 'THE SKELETON TWINS', and it stars Woody Harrelson (in the title role). The movie tells the story of a lonely, neurotic and extremely honest middle-aged man, named Wilson, who goes looking for his teenage daughter, after just discovering he had one. Laura Dern, Judy Greer and Isabella Amara also costar in the movie. It's received a limited indie theatrical release at the Box Office, and it's gotten mostly mediocre reviews from critics. I also found the film to be far from perfect, but it's also at least somewhat entertaining and insightful.

Wilson (Harrelson) is a lonely middle-aged man, who's lived alone most of his life. He's neurotic, and he's also uncomfortably open, and honest, with almost everyone he meets; which causes most people to distance themselves from him. Wilson was briefly married, to another mentally unstable, and now drug addicted, woman named Pippi (Dern). Pippi and Wilson conceived a child together, years earlier, but Wilson was told the baby was aborted. When he finds out the child was born, and she's now living with adoptive parents nearby, he feels the obsessive need to meet her (Amara).

I've never read the graphic novel that the film is based on, but I did enjoy the quirky 2001 cult classic 'GHOST WORLD'; which Clowes also wrote the screenplay to (and the comic book it was based on). I do really like the Wilson character though, and I can really relate to him in many ways (but definitely not in every way). I think Harrelson does an outstanding job portraying him too, and the movie is quite involving because of it. It's a little too unbalanced though, to highly recommend it; it's just way too dark at times, in comparison to it's otherwise upbeat nature.

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A slice of life is how I describe these movies, where one sees the common and mundane in a certain context.

Wilson is the story of an average misunderstood man from another time who is shown as hurting and caring but perseveres to try and find meaning in his otherwise drab existence. An average man who, by today's standards, is the bogeyman but as this poster can attest, speaks of an era where people were unique and opinionated instead of self-absorbed and indifferent.

I am looking forward to a second viewing to further see the depth of Harrelson's Wilson. And if there are other Clowes/Eightball fans out there who haven't seen Wilson yet, I recommend it. I also hope The Death-Ray and Ice Haven are made into movies.