Review: Demolition

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DIY the pain away.

Davis (Jake Gyllenhaal) loses his wife in a tragic car crash. While sitting in the ICU, he gets his candy stuck in a vending machine, and ends up writing a series of letters explaining his predicament to their customer service department. Karen (Naomi Watts) reads them and becomes concerned, and reaches out to him. Davis realizes that he was coasting through his life previously. He was always told he didn't pay enough attention, and now he's finding that to be true. Aside from writing letters to Karen to cope, he also starts to crave working with his hands, and disassembles quite a few different things.

I felt like this movie had something interesting to say, but then ran out of those things about half way through. For a film as short as this one, it drags in the 2nd half. Davis goes from coping with his own trauma to trying to figure out what's going on with Karen's teenage son, and while it provides some nice moments, it mostly felt forced. Like they needed a bit more drama and hey, moody teen always works.

Gyllenhaal is good, but when isn't he? There's moments in this film where I'd even call him great, but I just wanted more. I wanted my attention held. I'm not sure what other route they could've taken this film, perhaps it would've been better as a short?

Recommended: No

Grade: C+

Memorable Quote: "Well...that's different." - Davis (Jake Gyllenhaal)

Comments

  1. m.brownApril 12, 2016 at 10:31 AM

    I have a friend who really wants to see this...but now I'm not so sure if it's theater worthy. Hmm.

    Sounds like a rental.

    Hahaha...Moody teen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KatyApril 12, 2016 at 12:06 PM

    Nice review! Just wrote a review about this too. Like you said, it had interesting things to say but by the 50th time of knocking things down, the movie really loses any connection to his wife's death and their marriage. Gyllenhaal and Cooper were great though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 12, 2016 at 2:01 PM

      His wife's death felt like an afterthought by the time we got to the 3rd act. I feel like all the scenes of him bonding with Karen's son got so far away from everything else.

      Delete
  3. AnonymousApril 12, 2016 at 7:54 PM

    I really terribly loved this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 12, 2016 at 10:30 PM

      I'm glad you did! I love it when movies just *work* for you. That's a wonderful feeling.

      Delete
  4. rhysgdruryApril 12, 2016 at 8:09 PM

    Damn, that's a shame. Doesn't even have an Aussie release date as far as I can tell, so it'll probably creep onto DVD in a few months. Even though I'm a big fan of Gyllenhaal, I doubt I'll check it out. Great review :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 12, 2016 at 10:29 PM

      Thank you. I imagine it would go straight to DVD overseas. I can't see it being a big sell.

      Delete
  5. thevoid99April 12, 2016 at 9:19 PM

    I wanted to see this as well as I like Jake Gyllenhaal and Denis Villeneuve but I'll wait for it on TV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 12, 2016 at 10:29 PM

      Denis Villeneuve wasn't part of this, but I'm a big fan of Jake too. He's good, but TV is definitely a better way to see this.

      Delete
    2. thevoid99April 13, 2016 at 9:09 PM

      Oh, it's Jean-Marc Valle. Oops.

      Delete
  6. Candice FrederickApril 12, 2016 at 9:50 PM

    Damn, I was hoping this would be great

    ReplyDelete
  7. Big Screen Small WordsApril 13, 2016 at 1:35 AM

    I wanted to watch this, and with Gyllenhaal's current record, I was hoping this would be great. Might see this on DVD though, but not on my priority to-watch list now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 14, 2016 at 7:38 AM

      It's around where Southpaw is, IMO. Just okay, could've been better, definitely a rental.

      Delete
  8. UnknownApril 13, 2016 at 8:25 AM

    Oh man, I've been really looking forward to this one. I thought the premise of the whole thing was great but in all honesty I couldn't work out where it would go from there. I think I'll still catch it, but I won't rush to the cinema.
    - Allie

    ReplyDelete
  9. RuthApril 13, 2016 at 10:19 AM

    Just read a bad review of this today as well. That's a bummer as Jake G looks good, but seems the story is just weak and dull.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 14, 2016 at 7:38 AM

      It runs out of story too quickly. It should've been a short film.

      Delete
  10. s.April 13, 2016 at 11:33 AM

    Damn I wish Jake didn't waste his talent on mediocre movies like that one. Same goes for Warrs

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittani BurnhamApril 14, 2016 at 7:37 AM

      I think if someone would've polished up the script this could've been really great.

      Delete

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