Woody Harrelson, Isabella Amana, and Laura Dern (Wilson Webb/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)
Wilson is the kind of guy who will board a nearly empty train car and sit right next to someone wearing earbuds. He’ll pull up a chair at a cafe to sit next to someone diligently working at a laptop. Wilson thinks we’d all be better off without computers, you see, but when he tells this to people he invariably comes off like an obnoxious jerk. Wilson is a lonely man who loves his dog and cries at his father’s deathbed, and the movie that revolves around him is bleak, heartbreaking—and frequently hilarious.
Harrelson stars as the middle-aged divorcee, whose only friends (Mary Lynn Rajskub and Eagleheart‘s Brett Gelman) are about to leave town, leaving Wilson with his faithful dog as his only friend. Desperate for any kind of connection and seemingly oblivious to the way he comes off to people, he tracks down his ex-wife Pippi (Laura Dern), who, after they tenuously reconnect, has a surprise for Wilson: after they split up, she gave birth to their child, which she gave up for adoption.
That was 17 years ago, and Wilson drags his reluctant ex along to find their teenage daughter Clare (Isabella Amara), who was adopted by functioning adults who are far more productive members of society than her troubled DNA pool. Is this the beginning of a beautiful new friendship?
If you’re familiar with the work of cartoonist Daniel Clowes, you know the answer to that is no. But the movie is not without hope.
Clowes, whose stylish, dryly cynical work was previously translated to film in Ghost World and Art School Confidential, adapted his own graphic novel for Wilson‘s screenplay, and the movie has all the hallmarks of its author’s curmudgeonly humor. Wilson may well sound like a thoroughly unappealing character even if you loved Ghost World, and in typical Clowes fashion, his antihero’s exploits careen from pathos to absurdity like some kind of deadpan telenovela.
Steadfast throughout this is Harrelson, who handles every tonal curveball with humanity. Reading Clowes’ work on the page, it’s hard not to think that the author holds his creations, and the whole human race, in smug contempt, but Harrelson brings a blankly sad two-dimensional character to fully fleshed-out life. Thanks to him, you can’t help but like Wilson, even if he inevitably says and does the wrong thing.
Director Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins) carefully navigates the script’s wild mood swings, walking a tightrope over a snarling pit of misanthropy and easy redemption. Yet even when the characters around him approach mere caricature, Harrelson is there to keep it real. Just like the poster says, beneath that unfiltered frankness, Wilson is a people person, like we all are, and even if you wouldn’t want to hang out with him, you’ll appreciate his struggle.
Directed by Craig Johnson
Written by Daniel Clowes, adapted from his graphic novel.
With Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, Isabella Amara, Judy Greer.
Rated R for language, sexuality and gross insensitivity
94 minutes
Opens today at Landmark E Street Cinema, Regal Majestic, AMC Shirlington, ArcLight Bethesda, Angelika Mosaic, AMC Hoffman, Bow Tie Harbor, Regal Countryside, and AMC Potomac Mills
