Last summer there was a bit of speculation - including here - about Jake Gyllenhaal's Oscars clout in boxing drama Southpaw - excellent performance, solid movie. Like many a long range thing, the nod from the Academy didn't materialise and it's now a decade since Gyllenhaal made the Best Supporting Actor shortlist for Brokeback Mountain - his sole nomination to date. It would really be an injustice if he wasn't in the Best Actor shakeup next January for Demolition, a flawed yet deeply moving meditation on grief from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée.
The ghosts are everywhere
Gyllenhaal plays Davis Mitchell, an investment banker whose wife Julia (Heather Lind) is killed in a car crash. Unable to focus on work in his father-in-law Phil's (Chris Cooper) firm, Davis becomes obsessed with a faulty vending machine in the Intensive Care Unit where his wife was a patient - coping mechanisms have been constructed around far less. Taking Phil's advice that you need to take something completely apart to fix it a little too literally, Davis devotes his time to the physical rather than the mental, leaving disassembled bathroom stalls, computers and espresso machines in his wake. When he gets his hands on a sledgehammer you really fear that he's only adding to the rubble of his own life.
The wrecking crew
For anyone who is going through something like Davis Demolition is a tough recommendation, because it'll help some but pile on the hurt for others. Both should be able to agree, mind, that it's a spot-on guide to the cul-de-sacs, roundabouts and detours that people must try to navigate on the way from a former life to a 'new normal'. In Demolition there are ghosts in everything from make-up to post-its, moments of hilarity and absurdity and silent howls of loneliness in the eyes. But everyone's grief is also different, and Gyllenhaal and director Vallée do a really good job of depicting that. No Hollywood histrionics here.
Loneliness is a crowded room
Where Demolition is on shakier ground is with the supporting characters - another 15 minutes would've done wonders. Naomi Watts' kind stranger should have added more power to the story, while Judah Lewis' excellent turn as her tearaway teenager also deserved extra screentime. As a result, the film feels somewhat uneven and isn't as narratively fulfilling as Dallas Buyers Club. Praise is due, however, for a conclusion that feels exactly right: really, the only 'happy' ending is what you learn to live with.
Harry Guerin
