Demolition (2016)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Davis Mitchell	Jake Gyllenhaal
Karen Moreno	Naomi Watts
Phil Eastwood	Chris Cooper
Chris Moreno	Judah Lewis
Carl	C.J. Wilson	½
Margot Eastwood	Polly Draper
Julia	Heather Lind

Review

In order to fix something that's broken, you must first completely dismantle it. This is the aphorism that Jake Gyllenhaal's character in Demolition puts into practice after having lost his wife in a traffic accident after which he was not finding able ways to grieve. Baked into it all is a lot of symbolism and insinuations about finding meaning in our sterile, career-driven modern lives, which are valid and thought-provoking enough. And Jake Gyllenhaal gives the type of pensive, authentic performance that we've come to expect from him of late. Still, Demolition isn't quite able to put itself together to a fully assembled motion picture. It's a film of provocative and well-performed bits and pieces, but when director Jean-Marc Vallée knows it's time to find out what exactly he wants to say, his conclusion about savouring what you have before it's too late doesn't feel very convincing seen in light of the profound identity crisis his protagonist has exhibited. Demolition is an unfulfilled and flawed film, but one that should be seen.