Wildlife is a fascinating film that I’ve seen several times now. It’s a complex look at the shifting domestic landscape of a family in 1960’s America, using excellent acting and deft, subtle storytelling to tell a heartbreaking tale.
Wildlife is a 2018 film adaptation of Richard Ford’s novel, directed by Paul Dano. Dano and his wife, Zoe Kazan, wrote the script, telling a precise, intricate story of how the reality of the domestic space can often clash with the life we wished we were living. The story reminds me of one of my favourite writers, Richard Yates – a writer who often focuses on the disappointment and heartache of life; the quelling of dreams once seen through the backdrop of a practical, listless, ever-changing world.
Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and Jerry Brinson (Jake Gyllenhaal) have just moved to Great Falls, Montana with their fourteen-year-old son, Joe (played by Ed Oxenbould.) As the film starts, Jerry works at a golf course. He seems to have a preserving attitude, one that led them to move to Montana in the first place. He encourages his son to play football at school, even if he doesn’t want to – trying to mould his son into having dreams of his own even if it quickly becomes clear that Jerry’s aspirations haven’t gone according to plan.
In lieu with this, Jerry is fired from the golf course soon after. He tries to save face by stating that the clientele loved him and, if anything, his problem was that he was too well liked. Crucially, the day after, the management of the golf course change their mind, and offer Jerry his job back, but Jerry refuses.
This creates tension in the household, as Jeanette decides to get work (something Jerry would rather she didn’t have to do.) Unable to find another job and feeling like a failure, Jerry decides to volunteer as a firefighter in an attempt to stop the local wildfire. This causes him to leave, much to the chagrin of Jeanette, as she declares that he is a fool for moving away from his family. It throws the family dynamic into complete chaos.
At his heart, Jerry seems like an optimistic man – a man who is driven by the sheer idea that things will work out for the best. He’s a proud, independent person who wants his family to find their place in the world, even if it results in constant failure. The insinuation when discussing why they moved to Montana is that they moved for Jerry. Jerry has seemingly had bright ideas before that haven’t come to fruition and working at the golf course seems like just another one to add to the growing list.
The fire represents for Jerry the perfect opportunity to show what a heroic figure he is. It gives him drive, purpose – it’s almost like the wildfire is calling to him. Jerry is a critique of the male ego; one to0 proud to accept a job back, one to eager to find meaning, he’s willing to abandon his family for an unspecified period of time, for a job that only pays a dollar an hour. In Jerry’s mind, he is performing an important, civic duty when, in reality, he is running away from the knowledge that the idyllic domestic life that he envisioned is crumbling around him.
Now, we get to Jeanette. Jeanette is clearly sick of these schemes, sick of trying to start life over when she isn’t fully sure who she is. Before Jerry leaves, she gets a job as a swimming teacher but, upon Jerry leaving, she quickly states to Joe that they may need to move, as she’s unsure if they could afford to continue living in the house. She doesn’t want to live there because it reminds her of the marriage that is falling apart.
Jerry has gone off to fight a fire but, in Jeanette’s eyes, it’s as if he’s gone to war. He may as well be dead. She refuses to answer the phone when it rings, as if she is actively trying to avoid him. She also takes Joe out to see the fire in an attempt to understand Jerry’s actions – to explain to Joe how his father has picked fighting this fire over raising a family.
Jeanette sees Jerry fighting the fire as not just a failure on Jerry’s part, but a failure of their entire marriage. It’s a failure she’s struggling to accept, often detaching herself not just from Jerry but Joe, her innocent son. She’s distant with him. Joe often wakes to find Jeanette simply not in the house, as if she’s forgotten about him entirely.
It’s a particularly despairing situation for Joe – a teenager who has both a missing father and missing mother. They are both seemingly running away from the problem that is their marriage without realising that they are also running away from Joe. Oxenbould beautifully portrays Joe’s confusion and horror at the world around him. Joe is clearly a teenager who attempts to navigate the dissolution of his parent’s marriage in a state of panicked silence. At times, it’s like he’s too scared to breathe or make a noise. He has no idea what to do with his life, and just wants his parents to be fine.
To Joe, the fire represents the perpetual change that his life has now set out for him. At one point, Jeanette states that the trees that are left behind from a forest fire, the ones left alive, are called the “standing dead.” They are condemned and lifeless. If the fire is the falling apart of Jeanette and Jerry’s marriage, then Joe appears to be the standing dead. He would do anything to prevent it from happening but, much like the trees in relation to the fire, whether he gets engulfed by the destruction or manages to survive it, it will have a lasting impact on how he sees and experiences the world.
Wildlife is a great film that only gets deeper the more you examine it. It tells a focused, tragic story about human failure, how we choose to manage it and how, much like a fire, it can spread and claim many victims.
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