Wander

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.

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.

Ex Cop and now a private investigator Arthur Bretnik (Aaron Eckhart) investigates a current murder in the town of Wander, where a young girl was murdered and Arthur is convinced her death is connected with his daughter's death in a similar car accident years ago. Keep in mind that Arthur suffers from PTSD and mixes his meds and this causes him to be hyper and may have hallucinations. Arthur is paranoid about everything and takes unusual precautions in everything he does. His wing man is Jimmy (Tommy Lee Jones) and both do podcasts that talk about Alien conspiracies.

This is one of the most confusing movies I have ever watched. We are not really sure what this movie is about. Arthur is convinced that someone is kidnapping people for human experiments, but Arthur isn't sure who is involved with that. He keeps seeing a blonde lady in black who he thinks is involved. He learns her name is Elsa (Catheryn Winnick, from the Viking TV Series). She is a very good actress and very beautiful. (I was waiting for you to say that. Very good.)

So enjoy what you can. And if you figure out what this movie is really about, let me know. I have suspicions having to do with Arthur's medical condition and maybe some truth to everything he sees.

Can we rely on what we are being told and what is shown to us? You decide.

Notables: A very pretty Heather Graham as Shelly, Arthur's confidant and lawyer who takes care of Tanya, Arthur's wife who survived the car accident years ago, but is catatonic; Say what?; Raymond Cruz as Sheriff Santiago; Victor, who Arthur meets and believes Victor is the boss and is responsible for human experimentations and kidnappings and everything Arthur has experienced since the accident years ago. (I cannot find who plays Victor, but while searching this out I did see that there were 30 producers of this movie. One of them - you would think - would have said, "Hey this is confusing." Didn't happen.

There is a twist that tries to explain to Arthur that what he saw was not really what he saw. You decide.

Oh, some scenes at the end show a young girl who looks like his daughter only somewhat older. Is his daughter still alive? Her name is/was Zoe (Elizabeth Selby). See? Confusing.

This is watchable, just very confusing; again, you decide. (5/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: No. Language: No Rating: C

Firstly I'll start off by saying I think Aaron Eckhart, Tommy Lee Jones and Heather Graham are all good actors and they do a decent job in the movie. However, Eckhart's acting is a bit over the top sometimes that it almost comes across as a cheesy B-movie, especially the shots when it's zooming out from his face when he's having flashbacks or waking up.

The story itself was quite predictable, at about the halfway point you can hazard a guess about the main character, although they don't explain much in the movie. At times I found this movie a bit boring and slow despite it being only 90mins.

Some of the shots and the sequencing also weren't enjoyable either as it was just all over the place much like the story. I also wasn't a fan of the ending. When it all happened I didn't feel any emotion for the character at all other than being glad the movie was over.

Finally, this was just a small nitpicking thing, but if you are paranoid like the main character and afraid of being spied on that you are constantly changing your phone SIM card, you definitely would not plug a random usb stick into your laptop that has been mysteriously slipped through your door.

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.