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.

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.

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 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.

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.