Wander Darkly

If you're too happy and want to bring yourself down a notch, watch this movie. That wouldn't even be so bad, except that at the end, you realize that you've been duped.

As the film starts, we're introduced to an, at first, seemingly happy young couple, Adrienne and Metteo, with a new baby and a new house. But, as the layers of the onion are peeled back, we realized that they're not really happy at all. In fact, there's major doubts about fidelity and commitment on both sides. They've way over extended themselves financially and have to depend on her parents for babysitting and support. Matteo and her parents do not get along at all. The fact Matteo hasn't ask her to marry him probably doesn't help.

It's date night and Matteo has forgotten all about it. In the car they argue and there is talk of splitting up. Matteo is distracted, causing a terrible wreck. At this point the movie takes a "Jacob's Ladder" turn. Don't believe anything you see from here on.

After the big reveal, the movie ends on a sappy note designed to wring a final tear from the audience. Sienna Miller, who plays Adrienne, is the main reason to watch this, if you feel like putting yourself through it.

I hadn't cried in a long time. There's really not a lot to say about this film that the watcher shouldn't experience for themselves and that hasn't been said my past reviewers.

This movie makes sense when you know that it is mostly the writer-director's own story. She and her husband were in a bad automobile accident and when she regained consciousness she wouldn't see. Thus the title 'Wander Darkly.' She developed that experience into this fictional story.

The couple are Sienna Miller as Adrienne and Diego Luna as Matteo. They are not married but decided to have a child who is a few months old when the movie starts. They have relationship baggage that needs to get sorted out and their accident is the catalyst for that.

It would be impossible for me to write a logical narrative after viewing the movie, in many ways it is like watching a series of dream sequences. However I enjoyed it, both lead actors are very good in their roles, especially Miller.

I watched it at home on DVD from my public library. My wife skipped, she was on a golf trip.

Greetings again from the darkness. An ambitious filmmaker by nature takes risks that other filmmakers don't, sometimes to the detriment of their own success. However, for those of us who maintain a crazy pace of movie watching, we tend to relish those who find a way to try something different - turn a familiar story into one we might not have seen before. So hats off to writer-director Tara Miele (THE LAKE EFFECT, 2010) for jolting the frequently used flashback effect and making it into an interactive experience.

Adrienne (Sienna Miller) and Matteo (Diego Luna) are a normal couple going through the kind of rough patch that many couples will relate to. They have chosen to not get married, yet they have a newborn baby and recently purchased a home (despite job situations that don't seem to add up). The pressures of adulting have resulted in frustrations and distrust to the point that Adrienne questions if the relationship should even continue. Their solution is scheduling "date nights", and the one we see is a date night gone bad ... and then worse.

What follows is Adrienne and Matteo on a surreal trek through the hazy memories of their relationship via moments in time that play like foggy dreams. We see good moments and bad, and the two hash out what they really thinking at the time - all while Adrienne tries to make sense of her new situation. There are some similarities here to Michel Gondry's excellent ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004), but at its core, this is a heartfelt examination of trauma, love, memories, and grief as they relate and impact a relationship.

Beth Grant provides support work as Adrienne's mother, but it's Sienna Miller who delivers what may be a career best performance. She has always been a fine actress, but this may be the widest range of emotions she's ever had to convey. The dialogue may be a bit sketchy at times, but we recognize every portion of this flawed relationship. Watching a couple re-live actual past situations and debate on what was said or what was meant, is a history lesson that cuts deeply. A clip from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is purposeful in its inclusion, but I won't disclose anything further in regards to the nature of these characters and what they go through. I'll only say that filmmaker Miele (a Grand Jury award winner at Sundance) does really nice work in showing how physical trauma and emotional trauma so often go hand-in-hand. In select theaters and On Demand December 11, 2020

Married couple Adrienne (Sienna Miller) and Matteo (Diego Luna) has a car accident. She seems to be dead as she exists in purgatory living out one memory after another.

The first half struggles to find a narrative drive. It needs a mystery, a goal, or a point to the story. In a way, it's stuck in purgatory like the protagonist. There is a mystery to be had if the film doesn't start with her in a morgue drawer. The first half could be her struggling to figure out if she's dead. The second half does find a couple of points and it gets interesting. All in all, there is some fine acting and this is a fine small indie.