Title: Wilson
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Craig Johnson
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, Isabella Amara
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
What It Is: Wilson is a neurotic, lonely, and straight to the point kind of guy. Not known for his politically correct candor. In fact, he doesn’t use any of the modern electrical conveniences like you know a computer or GPS things like that. He’s also very blunt to the point of annoying people. When his ex-wife Pippi (Dern) informs him he has a daughter she gave up for adoption he is ecstatic. So much so that he begins to stalk her and eventually sets up a meeting.
What We Think: Very VERY disjointed. There’s a lot of pacing issues here and I think that the narrative jumps all over the place. Harrelson is a fantastic actor but the script does him no favors and Wilson is highly unlikeable. Laura Dern is in a similar manner and her character doesn’t go through any sort of arc you can find interesting. Johnson’s direction is basic and he doesn’t do anything with the camera you’d call “spectacular”. Sure there are some moments where the film goes for the funny or emotional but both fall flat and the latter comes off as cheesy and ill-fitting.
Our Grade: D+, So yeah the film was a thing based on another thing that I hope is better than this thing. I can’t give my seal of approval for this one here. Maybe if you’re a fan of the source material than like sure. If not go ahead and skip this one as there isn’t much to see here. Woody Harrelson has much better work coming out in the near future. I’ll wait for that instead of ever trying to watch this again. Without a doubt, this came across as a bit too fake in its attempts to satisfy anyone really.