Wildlife (2018)

Wildlife: Directed by Paul Dano. With Ed Oxenbould, Jake Gyllenhaal, Carey Mulligan, Travis W Bruyer. A teenage boy must deal with his mother’s complicated response after his father temporarily abandons them to take a menial and dangerous job.

“This is based on a book of the same name, the script was written by Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan, Dano also directed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is set in Montana and filmed partly there, particularly the mountain scenes. The site used for the family home was actually in Oklahoma, we find out from the extras on the DVD.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile Gyllenhaal and Mulligan are the 30-something grown up parents, the core of the movie is really how their behaviors affect their 14-yr-old son, played by Ed Oxenbould, as Joe Brinson. It is 1960 and dad has moved the family to Montana where he has a job as golf pro (the book tells us) and greenskeeper (we observe) at a lower scale golf course, and mom (as was the usual case in 1960) accepted her role as homemaker.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDad loses his $40-a-week job, when they then say they made a mistake and try to hire him back, he instead decides to go away to fight forest fires until snowfalls begin, for the fine sum of $1.00 per hour. Mom, who got pregnant and married as a teenager, goes a bit off course as soon as she experiences the freedom of not having a husband around.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll this is happening as Joe, a good and quiet kid, serious about his existence, loving both parents, is also searching for his lifeu0026#39;s trajectory. The unexpected behaviors of his mom and dad serve to confuse him. So most of the movie is about family discord developing but the core of the issue is how it impacts Joe and how it affects his coming of age.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGood movie, my wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.”