Screened as part of NZIFF 2018

Wildlife 2018

Directed by Paul Dano

In Paul Dano’s ace directing debut, Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal capture the cracks that occur in a marriage when a young wife kicks against the constraints of 1950s domesticity.

USA In English
105 minutes DCP

Director

Producers

Alex Saks
,
Paul Dano
,
Oren Moverman
,
Ann Ruark
,
Jake Gyllenhaal
,
Riva Marker

Screenplay

Paul Dano
,
Zoe Kazan

Photography

Diego García

Editors

Matt Hannam
,
Lou Ford

Production designer

Akin McKenzie

Costume designer

Amanda Ford

Music

David Lang

With

Carey Mulligan (Jeanette Brinson)
,
Jake Gyllenhaal (Jerry Brinson)
,
Ed Oxenbould (Joe Brinson)
,
Bill Camp (Warren Miller)

Festivals

Sundance
,
Cannes 2018

Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal, two of the most gifted performers of their generation, lend a haunted melancholy to this evocative portrait of a crumbling marriage in 1950s Montana. Adapted from Richard Ford’s novel, Wildlife observes with acute nuance the emotional fallout that occurs for a small American family when dad Jerry (Gyllenhaal) loses his job. In a crisis of self, Jerry departs for the mountains to fight wildfires, leaving wife Jeanette (Mulligan) and son Joe (Ed Oxenbould) to fend for themselves.

Jaded by the confines of domesticity, Jeanette responds with an identity exploration of her own, trashing her 1950s homemaker image and embarking on an unsettling affair with a local bachelor. This dual metamorphosis is sensitively observed by only child Joe, whose coming of age here is rife with the volatility evoked in the film’s title. First-time helmsman Paul Dano is best known as an actor (There Will Be Blood, Love & Mercy), but judging by the virtues of this deeply affecting excavation of period mores, he’ll soon be equally revered as a director. — JF 

“Supported by a script that understands Jeanette’s challenges and approaches them with rare empathy, Mulligan’s frayed performance resolves into an immensely powerful study of reinvention. It’s striking to see such a proven actress deliver what’s so clearly the best work of her career… Directing with all the confidence you might expect from someone who’s spent the last two decades living the best film school imaginable, Dano crafts an unsparing portrait that’s harsh and humane in equal measure.” — David Ehrlich, Indiewire