Wander

The story is very confusing and tried to be too clever. The events weren't explained so well, and there are numerous twists. I don't actually know what really happened.

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.

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.

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.

This is a movie that should be better than it is. The actors are fine, the storytelling and editing are suspect. Also some of the dialog is very difficult to understand, requiring subtitles turned on at times we wanted to be sure of what was discussed. It takes place in the fictional New Mexico town of Wander where everyone knows everyone else and strangers in town are stopped and warned. A paranoid detective, deep into conspiracy theories, is hired to investigate the real cause of a death, a woman found in the middle of the road with a deep wound in her chest near her heart. The editing is jumpy and somewhat erratic, you are often not sure what you are seeing and if it is present or flashback, or even imagined by the paranoid detective. I enjoyed the viewing at some level but don't consider it a particularly good movie. The writer and director, a team of sorts, have limited experience with movies and it shows. My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.