Screenplay Written by Adam Braff & Zach Braff
Directed by Zach Braff
*1/2 (one and a half stars)
In my family, 2014 has proven itself to be a sadly transformative year.
In January, I said goodbye to my Grandmother, Mrs. Exzine Ryan, who passed away at the age of 93 after a slowly debilitating illness. Just two short weeks ago, I said goodbye to her husband, my Grandfather, Mr. Elihu George Ryan, who passed away at the age of 94 in his home and as a complete surprise to the family as he had not been ill whatsoever. My Grandparents, who had known each other since the earliest days of their respective childhoods and were married for 74 years, were the truest, kindest and most tenacious representatives of the family Patriarch and Matriarch that I could hope to think of and was completely blessed to have had. In both situations, I attended the funerals, where I briefly spoke at both events during the remarks sections of the ceremonies. I also was enlisted in both situations to be a pall bearer. And I was miserable.
Regardless of the fact that I was more than willing to pay my respects to my Grandparents in that fashion, I hated every singe second of being a pall bearer. With the strains of The Beatles' "Carry That Weight" playing in my head over and over as I helped to carry each body across the cemetery field to the spaces where they would each be lowered into the ground for eternity, I internally hated every moment. I hated the act in which I was a participant. I hated the stark reality of what I was helping to carry. I hated being part of any sort of burial as both of them represented the best of what life is and they each respected every instance of the lengthy lives they were graced with. The entire experience, which also included being surrounded by family members all behaving and reacting in a fashion to which I have never seen despite the appropriateness considering the circumstances, was one that undoubtedly forced me to confront the very issues I try my very best to avoid thinking about...but are much more difficult to accomplish as I age. Of course, the reality of mortality is paramount. But in some ways, it was the reality of growing up that felt to be almost equally as painful.
Yes, I am currently existing within the period of middle age where I have my own family, a home, a career teaching little ones and a host of adult responsibilities...and yet through it all, I still feel as if I am the same goofy kid that I have always been and still imagine myself to being. But again, having "adult responsibilities" and the act of "growing up" do not necessarily mean the same thing and after experiencing two funerals, which only signals the funerals to come, I found myself feeling as if fully growing up was imminent, and it just made me feel so sad. How does one care for an ailing parent and endure all of the additional responsibilities that accompany that care? How does one find a certain strength to build one's maturity, especially when you had never truly thought about those sorts of things so explicitly before? How does one find or even unearth inside of oneself the very characteristics that your ailing loved ones need from you the most? What is the balance one must find with maintaining one's own life and future as a dear loved one's life is ending? That, and the inevitable shifting of family roles, is growing up. Furthermore, those questions and more have been spiralling through my brain and in those cases, watching movies and writing stories about cherished youthful days feels frivolous to the point of being insignificant.
I mention all of the above to you because this afternoon, I did return to the movie theater to screen Writer/Director/Actor Zach Braff's "Wish I Was Here," his spiritual sequel to his directorial debut "Garden State" (2004), and now famous for Braff's highly successful Kickstarter campaign, which helped to fund the film. "Wish I Was Here" is a story of arrested development building into adult maturity and responsibility in the face of death. Unfortunately, and despite the earnest and honest intentions that are clearly evident, the film, for me, is a failure.
Please let me assure you that my reaction was not based within the feelings of not receiving what I hoped the film would give to me. It was stemmed in the fact that this was a film that had a tremendous amount of potential but unfortunately, Braff squandered it all in a misguided collection of prefabricated, canned and cliched characters and emotions that fully derailed its provocative core. For fans of "Garden State" and even Braff's work in Director Tony Goldwyn's romantic comedy/drama "The Last Kiss" (2004), the concepts and themes of "Wish I Was Here" feel like a most natural progression and you may find something to enjoy this time around. But for me, I was left seriously disappointed and deeply wanting.
"Wish I Was Here" stars Zach Braff as Aidan Bloom, a struggling actor, loving husband to Sarah (a solid Kate Hudson) and overly preoccupied and inattentive Father to two children, Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) and teenager Grace (Joey King). When Aidan's Father, Saul (a wonderful Mandy Patinkin) informs him that he is rapidly dying of cancer and will no longer to be able to afford to keep paying for Tucker and Grace's private Hebrew school education, Aidan is forced to not only home school his children himself but to at long last, discover the full purpose of his life, a purpose that has been elusive for his 35 years.
When "Garden State" was released 10 years ago, I have to admit that I was not fully taken with the film, although there was much to admire. It was evident that Zach Braff possessed a quizzical cinematic eye and proved himself to be a filmmaker who could establish a strong visual palate. With that quality, plus the film's primary themes and emotions of the restlessness and malaise that can be found during one's 20's, and of course, its long celebrated soundtrack, I felt that Braff made a touching "rainy day movie" that also worked as an homage to the films of Hal Ashby. However, I was not entirely sold as Braff also, and cloyingly, filed his film from top to bottom with the very self-congratulatory sense of quirkiness that litters so many independent films that "Garden State" felt to only exist inside of quotation marks and therefore, never contained emotions that felt tangible to me.
With "Wish I Was Here," and as evidenced by the photo that I have placed at the top of this review, Braff's brand of the same self-congratulatory quirkiness is on display once again and it is still annoying to view. But even worse, is how Braff takes the inherent dramatic and comedic framework of his story and does not allow it, for so much of its running time, to just unfold naturally and without any sense of prefabricated forcefulness, making "Wish I Was Here" painfully saddled with a morass of poorly conceived and executed cliches. The children are cliched versions of movie precocious kids. Aidan's sloppy, vulgar, spaceman costume wearing, trailer living brother Noah (Josh Gad) is nothing more than a cliched version of the family black sheep. Sarah, who is also burdened with a needless subplot about office sexual harassment, is the cliche of the long suffering wife married to the "man-child." And as for that aforementioned "man-child," I was truly surprised that Zach Braff would write for himself and direct himself to be one of the most shamelessly cliched versions of arrested development and inept movie Dads that I have seen in quite some time. So much so, that once again, what Braff has conceived never feels authentic.
Early sequences in "Wish I Was Here" depicted between Aidan and his children, Aidan with his Father or Aidan with the Hebrew school administration and Rabbis carried an almost low rent sitcom quality. The dialogue readings never felt to be natural, as if all of the actors were waiting for the laugh track to blare before reciting their next lines. Even Braff himself gave an often irritating performance that felt to illustrate not a man approaching middle age struggling with keeping his love of the arts and dreams of becoming an actor and balancing them with real life responsibilities, but more as a petulant, Borscht Belt comedian with an emotional range that dangerously bordered on infantile. There were moments when I wanted Sarah to just slap him silly and demand he step up to the plate, but if Braff allowed that, we couldn't then have the cliched male fantasy of the gorgeous wife who stands strongly beside her husband because she "believes in him," no matter how irresponsible he is and how absent he is in making their joined life together work for each of them.
Those qualities severely damaged the strong core of the film's actual story and the pathos that Braff was obviously trying to mine, especially as "Wish I Was Here" also wants to explore aspects of the Jewish faith and overall issues of spirituality, most formally with the character of (the cliched named) Grace. But then, we could have funny costumes, wigs, sunglasses and cliched profane dialogue sections centered around the family "Swear Jar." Yes, all of those qualities could have worked in better cinematic hands, I suppose. Yet, despite Zach Braff's honest belief in this material, it just seemed as if he again did not trust himself. Just like in "Garden State," when that film's most emotionally naked and powerful sequence, one between Braff and his Father (portrayed by Ian Holm) was left as a deleted scene.
As "Wish I Was Here" continues, it does gain some stronger footing. Throughout the entirety of the film Mandy Patinkin provides tremendous gravitas and skill with his depiction of a dying man coming to terms not solely with his mortality but with his strained and at times estranged relationship with his sons. He never strikes one false moment, no matter how often Braff lets him down. It also almost felt as if the film contained two different screenplays or at least, two extremely distinct and differing tones as many of the film's later scenes approached what I think Braff was trying to deliver.
One sequence set in a hospital between Patinkin and Kate Hudson (who is happily rescued from inept "romantic comedy hell") is just beautifully written, directed and acted. Later sequences between Braff and Patinkin also show a profound growth and weight that seriously dialed down the nonsense and just allowed the film to breathe and resonate. But by those points, all I could do was just wonder openly why Zach Braff didn't make his film without all of the cutesy artifice in the first place. It's evident that he has something worthy to say and the desire to say it but by dressing up what never needed to be dressed up, "Wish I Was Here" became an emotionally false experience that I think some (myself included) could argue knows nothing about growing up, parenting, being an adult child to an aging parent, love and marriage, spiritual/religious searching, reconciling one's youthful dreams of individuality and integrity while adhering to adult realities, as well as death and dying. But, the best of this material is just so hampered and hindered to such a detrimental degree, which is just such a shame and "Wish I Was Here" could have truly spoken to the soul.
Look dear readers, I have nothing against Zach Braff and I have no issues with his specialized brand of emotion and sensitivity, as he is so often mocked on the internet. In fact, I admire his tenacity with wanting to get his new film made, his way. Perhaps his cinematic aesthetic is one that does not appeal to my sensibilities, and that is something I will concede. But, even so, the tonal mess of "Wish I Was Here" frustrated me greatly, making this film one of 2014's big disappointments.
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