Wander

There's some great shots, good actors, good production values all-round. Even the script is pretty good for about the first half. Then Eckhart sort of spirals, becoming less believable and the script takes a turn into full con conspiracy theory stuff that makes less and less sense. While they try to make this interesting with him being mentally ill, it doesn't feel well done enough to be anything other than something that could have been fun, but stumbles repeatedly.

I love detective movies set up in the rural or sun soaked settings but this one is far from it.

6 stars only cos of the two lead actors and that too, coincidentally both played Harvey Dent/Two-Face.

A mentally unstable conspiracy theorist and private detective is hired to investigate an accident in a small town. The detective suspects the accident to be a murder n part of a conspiracy cover up that caused the death of his daughter. Sounds good uh. But the execution is not at all interesting or captivating. Sneaking in and outta Fox Hole so easily, everything served on the table n no threat involved, directly or indirectly, cud have at least put some sense into our detective. A very weak n predictable ending.

It's like the script was written by someone who wanted to make money off the popularity of 'conspiracy theories' but they didn't know anything about conspiracy theories. So the writer(s) got together one weekend and surfed a conspiracy theory message board for a few hours, jotted down a few frequently used phrases, then forced them into a nonsensical story.

I finished it wondering who it was made for...because people who loathe conspiracy theorists aren't going to like it. And actual conspiracy theorists are going roll their eyes at all the cliches.

Lastly, I'm a fan of Eckart's but his bug-eyed 'crazy conspiracy theorist' character looked like something I'd see at my local community theater.

One day in the far distant future mankind will uncover all the secrets of the universe. The last thing uncovered will be what the heck this movie's about.

It can't be a coincidence that the two 'Two-Face' actors get together to do a film and Aaron Eckhart decides to do a 'Batman' voice for the role, can it? His voice is incredibly husky in this film. Just a thought that crossed my mind. 'Wander' was a bizarre little film. There's a lot going on here, and it might just have been a little much for the filmmakers to juggle coherently. It was hard to follow, which is fine as long as the film is interesting enough for the audience to justify putting in the leg-work to work it out. On this occasion it was not.

The film commits the cardinal sin of having exactly zero likeable characters. It makes for an extremely unpleasant viewing experience. The sad thing is the cast was more than good enough for this to not have to be the case. Tommy Lee Jones is probably the closest thing we have to someone who could bring a smile to our face, but we don't know his motives, and he's not in the film a whole lot. Eckhart's character is supposed to be the protagonist, however he is a conspiracy nut who may or may not be losing his mind. He's pretty hard work.

There's a very shaky camera present constantly throughout the film. I'm not sure why this was the case but it was very distracting (and I don't typically notice camera-work). I think the idea behind 'Wander' was actually a noble one, and if executed correctly it could have been a very interesting little film. As it is though this would be a hard one to recommend to people.