Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club; Wild; The Young Victoria) and starring Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain; Nightcrawler; Source Code; Prisoners), Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive; The Impossible; King Kong; Insurgent; J. Edgar) and Chris Cooper (Adaptation; American Beauty; The Patriot; The Bourne Identity; The Amazing Spider-Man 2). Drama, 100 mins; 12+ An off-the-wall story about grief and how it affects people in different ways. Investment banker Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his wife and driving in the city one evening when their car is hit by another and she loses her life. While he is virtually unscathed, he starts to fall to pieces and demolishes everything around him. He focuses on small details in his daily life, including writing a letter of complaint to a vending machine company after he lost his money in one. He is contacted by Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), customer service representative at the company, who starts to stalk him and they start an unconventional relationship. Meanwhile, his father-in-law (also his boss) Phil (Chris Cooper) sees he is distracted from work, initially deemed by colleagues to be natural under the circumstances, but his behavious becomes more and more strange; all while Phil is trying to put together a foundation as his daughter's legacy. The main plot sees Davis unravelling, demolishing all remnants of his previous life. Emotionally-charged, the film also sees various sub-plots, including Karen's teenage son discovering himself in an adult's world. While interesting and thought-provoking, it is very much a festival film, but lacking drama and suspense, with a couple of flashback scenes where the editor must have been interrupted mid-splice. This film was screened at the opening of the 2016 Luxembourg City Film Festival on Thursday evening - see www.luxcityfilmfest.lu for details of programming, etc.
