A Curmudgeonly Know-It-All Meets The Daughter He Doesn't: 'Wilson'
The namesake of Wilson is the kind of guy people try to avoid on the bus, at the sidewalk cafe, or while using the adjacent urinal. Yet the makers of this deadpan comedy want us to spend 90 minutes with him.
The experience isn't painful, but it is a little frustrating. Playing the reclusive, misanthropic, yet oddly gregarious title character, Woody Harrelson is as engaging as the man's personality allows. But Wilson struggles with tone, shifting from monotonously bleak to predictably satirical to improbably sanguine.
The movie was adapted from a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, and offers another take on the premise of Ghost World, the best of the three films derived from his work: A disaffected middle-aged man bonds with an alienated teenage girl. But this time the story takes the viewpoint of the man, who lacks the winning adolescent sass of Ghost World's Enid and her pal, Rebecca. (The other1 film based on Clowes comic was 2006's Art School Confidential.)
Wilson is a lonely guy who's about to get lonelier: His dad is dying and his best friend is moving to St. Louis. (Wilson's tattered, semi-urban habitat is not identified, but the comic is set in Oakland, where Clowes lives.) Wilson will be left with just his adorable terrier, so he makes some tentative attempts to broaden his social circle. He fails, but in the process is introduced to something he's been carefully avoiding: the Internet.
Suddenly, it becomes possible to track Pippi (Laura Dern), the ex-wife who abandoned him 17 years ago. She reluctantly renews their acquaintance, and casually reveals that she didn't terminate the pregnancy that began around the time their marriage ended. Wilson, as needful of human connection as he is disdainful of it, is elated. He's a dad!
There's a complication. Claire (Isabella Amara) was put up for adoption, and Wilson has no legal right to see her. He introduces himself anyway, and the goth girl develops an affinity for the eccentric curmudgeon who says he's her father. Pippi joins in, and the three pretend to be a family. Briefly.
Things go very wrong, but then sort of right again. One reason for the turnaround is the presence of easygoing Shelly (Judy Greer), a dogsitter who later becomes a fitness instructor. That's two more jobs than are indicated for Wilson, who seems to be independently not very wealthy.
This material was more striking in its original form because Clowes took an experimental approach, dividing the story into short vignettes and varying his drawing style. The cartoonist scripted the movie, but it was directed by Craig Johnson, who previously balanced the gamy and the sweet in The Skeleton Twins. Like Wilson, that semi-tragic farce took a conventional approach to outlandish events.
"Modern civilization is a scam," announces Wilson in his opening narration, and that stance is something else this film shares with Ghost World. Yet while Wilson takes the occasional swipe at recent cultural abominations — teen pop, shops that sell nothing but multiple varieties of olive oil — it never marshals much vehemence.
Clowes' vision of an ideal world is reduced to such throwaways as the film on the marquee of the local cinema: Umberto D., a 1952 Italian neorealist drama about a solitary man who, unlike Wilson, is actually battling to survive in a hostile world. Compared to Umberto D.'s travails, Wilson's existential funk seems something of a scam.
New movie 'Wilson' features Twin Cities
ROSEVILLE, MIinn. - The Original Malt Shop in Roseville recently got a taste of Hollywood.
"This entire space was full of their stuff and their people," said owner Mike Mueller.
The shop was one of several Twin Cities settings chosen by directors of the movie 'Wilson', a comedy featuring Woody Harrelson that shot for six weeks around the Twin Cities back in the summer of 2015.
Wilson premieres this weekend in limited release nationwide, and local audiences will recognize many of the settings, including the Como Zoo and the Mall of America.
The shoot employed more than a hundred Minnesotans who worked both off and on screen alongside Harrelson. The star plays a foul-mouthed man who crosses many people in his quest to connect with his ex and a daughter he never knew he had, but off-camera many those who interacted with Harrelson said he was nothing like his character.
"He's was very humble and very nice," Mueller said.
Actor Paul Cram, a native of Wyoming, Minnesota - agrees.
"He's so down to earth and fun," said Cram, who plays 'Piper' and shares a scene with Harrelson at lesser known Minnesota setting: The Ramsey County Correctional Facility. "Piper is his cell mate and Piper is one of the few people in the prison who is actually kind."
Cram says his role in the movie is short, but takes place at a time when 'Wilson' is going through a transformation.
The scene inside The Original Malt Shop also moves quickly and the malt Harrelson enjoys on camera isn't something you'll find on the menu.
"Woodie is a raw foodie vegetarian and he doesn't eat any sweetener, so they brought me something special," Mueller said. "Soy milk, Rice Dream, non-dairy, non-sweetener... I don't know what it was, but he told me to be careful not to mix it up with the ice cream."
The experience isn't painful, but it is a little frustrating. Playing the reclusive, misanthropic, yet oddly gregarious title character, Woody Harrelson is as engaging as the man's personality allows. But Wilson struggles with tone, shifting from monotonously bleak to predictably satirical to improbably sanguine.
The movie was adapted from a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, and offers another take on the premise of Ghost World, the best of the three films derived from his work: A disaffected middle-aged man bonds with an alienated teenage girl. But this time the story takes the viewpoint of the man, who lacks the winning adolescent sass of Ghost World's Enid and her pal, Rebecca. (The other1 film based on Clowes comic was 2006's Art School Confidential.)
Wilson is a lonely guy who's about to get lonelier: His dad is dying and his best friend is moving to St. Louis. (Wilson's tattered, semi-urban habitat is not identified, but the comic is set in Oakland, where Clowes lives.) Wilson will be left with just his adorable terrier, so he makes some tentative attempts to broaden his social circle. He fails, but in the process is introduced to something he's been carefully avoiding: the Internet.
Suddenly, it becomes possible to track Pippi (Laura Dern), the ex-wife who abandoned him 17 years ago. She reluctantly renews their acquaintance, and casually reveals that she didn't terminate the pregnancy that began around the time their marriage ended. Wilson, as needful of human connection as he is disdainful of it, is elated. He's a dad!
There's a complication. Claire (Isabella Amara) was put up for adoption, and Wilson has no legal right to see her. He introduces himself anyway, and the goth girl develops an affinity for the eccentric curmudgeon who says he's her father. Pippi joins in, and the three pretend to be a family. Briefly.
Things go very wrong, but then sort of right again. One reason for the turnaround is the presence of easygoing Shelly (Judy Greer), a dogsitter who later becomes a fitness instructor. That's two more jobs than are indicated for Wilson, who seems to be independently not very wealthy.
This material was more striking in its original form because Clowes took an experimental approach, dividing the story into short vignettes and varying his drawing style. The cartoonist scripted the movie, but it was directed by Craig Johnson, who previously balanced the gamy and the sweet in The Skeleton Twins. Like Wilson, that semi-tragic farce took a conventional approach to outlandish events.
"Modern civilization is a scam," announces Wilson in his opening narration, and that stance is something else this film shares with Ghost World. Yet while Wilson takes the occasional swipe at recent cultural abominations — teen pop, shops that sell nothing but multiple varieties of olive oil — it never marshals much vehemence.
Clowes' vision of an ideal world is reduced to such throwaways as the film on the marquee of the local cinema: Umberto D., a 1952 Italian neorealist drama about a solitary man who, unlike Wilson, is actually battling to survive in a hostile world. Compared to Umberto D.'s travails, Wilson's existential funk seems something of a scam.
 |
| Estrangement on a Train: Wilson (Woody Harrelson), Claire (Isabella Amana) and Pippi (Laura Dern) in Wilson. Wilson Webb/Twentieth Century Fox |
New movie 'Wilson' features Twin Cities
ROSEVILLE, MIinn. - The Original Malt Shop in Roseville recently got a taste of Hollywood.
"This entire space was full of their stuff and their people," said owner Mike Mueller.
The shop was one of several Twin Cities settings chosen by directors of the movie 'Wilson', a comedy featuring Woody Harrelson that shot for six weeks around the Twin Cities back in the summer of 2015.
Wilson premieres this weekend in limited release nationwide, and local audiences will recognize many of the settings, including the Como Zoo and the Mall of America.
The shoot employed more than a hundred Minnesotans who worked both off and on screen alongside Harrelson. The star plays a foul-mouthed man who crosses many people in his quest to connect with his ex and a daughter he never knew he had, but off-camera many those who interacted with Harrelson said he was nothing like his character.
"He's was very humble and very nice," Mueller said.
Actor Paul Cram, a native of Wyoming, Minnesota - agrees.
"He's so down to earth and fun," said Cram, who plays 'Piper' and shares a scene with Harrelson at lesser known Minnesota setting: The Ramsey County Correctional Facility. "Piper is his cell mate and Piper is one of the few people in the prison who is actually kind."
Cram says his role in the movie is short, but takes place at a time when 'Wilson' is going through a transformation.
The scene inside The Original Malt Shop also moves quickly and the malt Harrelson enjoys on camera isn't something you'll find on the menu.
"Woodie is a raw foodie vegetarian and he doesn't eat any sweetener, so they brought me something special," Mueller said. "Soy milk, Rice Dream, non-dairy, non-sweetener... I don't know what it was, but he told me to be careful not to mix it up with the ice cream."
0 Response to "A Curmudgeonly Know-It-All Meets The Daughter He Doesn't: 'Wilson'"
Post a Comment