Wakefield

[StevePulaski]

Wakefield (2017)
Directed by: Robin Swicord

Bryan Cranston in Wakefield.

Rating: ★½

I would rather subject myself to feeling the truly awful parts of all four seasons from my garage than sit through Robin Swicord's Wakefield. It tells the horribly problematic and terrible story of a selfish businessman with a mostly stable family and an upper middle-class house in the suburbs who gets to a certain point of being unable to face reality (in the form of his nagging wife), prompting him to decide to live in the attic of their detached garage. Because of the garage's location, he can stare out its window and watch day-to-day life unfold for his wife and two daughters, all while avoiding responsibility, and remarking about his wife's ineptitude as his face becomes devoured by a straggly beard.

This premise could've worked if it had positioned our main character, Howard Wakefield, in a light that wasn't practically praising him for his sudden detachment from society at the expense of his family, all of whom victims of his selfish manipulation. We learn that Howard met and won his wife (Jennifer Garner) over by playing another man she was seeing for a fool, taking advantage of her kindness in the process, and see him scoff and cackle upon his disappearance when she is forced to take out the trash and balance the checkbook every day. We hear about what a drag his six-figure job is, but the fact that he appreciates what it has given him in return enough basically to take refuge in his own house without fear of foreclosure says more about him than any long-winded voiceover can.

Howard is played by Bryan Cranston, always one to go all-out for even the worst movies. Most of the film's dialog in the present consists of voiceover narration by Cranston's Howard. The only time we even hear the voice of his wife, her mother (Beverly D'Angelo), or any other character is when a flashback is employed. Even when Howard exits the attic in the middle of the night to scrounge for food like a raccoon, the film is conducted with dialog outside of the verisimilitude. It's a repetitive tactic that feels like we're being read a book rather than watching a movie.

The unlikable, selfish nature of Howard is something that already exists on unsteady ground, but the fact that it's ignored to highlight the idea that he, as a character, represents the concept of disillusioned success is even more bogus. Written and directed by Robin Swicord, who co-wrote last year's The Promise, the film is stunningly uncritical of its lead character or its premise, which paints the cowardly decision to avoid responsibility and mock the more mature person in a relationship is, on some level, commendable and worthy of an inspirational story about one man changing his life. It's callous and cruel; you might as well make a movie about glorifying the heroism behind being a deadbeat dad.

Swicord, however, directs the film - which is based on a short story by E. L. Doctorow, which was based on a Nathaniel Hawthorne short story from 1835 - quite competently while writing the film with a fair attention to detail. We see Howard stowaway in his attic early, garnering many different supplies and accoutrements in order to fasten a life of modest comfort. Such things include an old mattress, a radio, and scraps of food that people discard; holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are anticipated for different reasons now. Meanwhile, Howard watches himself go from a missing person to one presumed dead, in addition to his wife go from distraught to moderately content as an old friend reemerges.

But Wakefield's ludicrous championing of Howard as a character worthy of even a shred of respect for what his attitude towards what he does is insulting and demeaning. He remarks at the end of the film, of course in narration, about how living for months in his attic has robbed him from the shallow materialism of the world and has made him appreciating living a more simplified, quasi-survivalist lifestyle. At that moment, it's as if Swicord recognized the sociology and foundation behind her film, and then kept right on making a cynical movie with a contemptible lead character.

Starring: Bryan Canston, Jennifer Garner, and Beverly D'Angelo. Directed by: Robin Swicord.