It’s fair to say that since his starring role alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood in 2007, actor Paul Dano hasn’t put a foot wrong career-wise. In his new film Wildlife, he makes an impressive directorial debut with a beautifully executed adaptation of Richard Ford’s 2009 novel of the same name, which Dano adapted in collaboration with his real life partner, actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan (The Big Sick).
Set in Great Falls, Montana in the early 60s, Wildlife stars Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal as a married couple struggling to keep their relationship on track, while newcomer Ed Oxenbould plays the couple’s traumatised 14 year-old son through whose eyes we see the whole story unfold.
From the outside, Jeanette Brinson (Mulligan ) is the perfect housewife, but underneath the facade of domestic bliss things are far from perfect in her marriage to Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal), a volatile drunk who can’t seem to hold a job down. After being unexpectedly fired from yet another post, a dejected Jerry takes on a low-paying and potentially dangerous job putting out wildfires as a way of finding a new purpose to his turbulent life. Incensed by her husband’s reckless decision, Jeanette soon finds new distractions away from home when she embarks on an ill-fated affair with a local rich widower whom she sees as a way out of financial uncertainty.
Mulligan is fantastic as a woman at the end of her tether in pre-feminist America who finally snaps after years of doing everything by the book and getting very little in return. And while some might struggle to forgive her character’s indiscretion and cruel behaviour, we still can’t help but have a great deal of sympathy towards her and what she must have gone through.
For his part, Jake Gyllenhaal gives yet another outstanding performance as Jerry, a broken man for whom the American dream has gone sour. Ed Oxenbould also shines in a career defining performance as a teenage boy caught in the middle of a traumatic break-up.
Paul Dano presents a visual masterpiece in his depiction of the vast Montana landscapes thanks to Diego García’s cinematography. Thematically, Wildlife depicts an America which is slowly emerging from its 1950s slumber of perfect family units and white picket fences, and into the bleak reality of financial strive and destitution amongst blue collar communities. A truly outstanding first foray into direction from a great actor and an impressive screenplay from both Kazan and Dano.