Review: Wilson

Cinematic curmudgeons can be wonderful depictions of pessimism and lost hope. I think of Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets or even Billy Bob Thornton in the original Bad Santa. These protagonists are assholes but there is something likable about them as well. Call it charisma or perhaps it is good writing that lets these characters be both likable and unlikeable. Wilson, based on the graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, is not one of these characters.

Craig Johnson's Wilson follows Woody Harrelson as the titular character who learns he has a daughter and decides to try to be in her life. Harrelson can be a charismatic and very watchable screen presence but here is far too mannered to ever be believable. His performance is a serious of ticks and beats rather that feeling like a three dimensional, fully realized character. 

Wilson is a man whose is out of touch with the modern world. He hates computers and prefers direct human interaction. This becomes a running joke in the film as Wilson constantly interrupts people who are on their phones to talk to them. He realizes he is lonely and decides to reach out to his ex Pippi, a under-utilized Laura Dern. She soon informs him that she didn't have an abortion years ago like Wilson thought but gave up their daughter for adoption. Wilson wants to hunt her down and meet her.

The film zigs and zags along the way. At one point we are in prison for about twenty minutes. The episodic narrative isn't held together well by director Craig Johnson. Johnson brings too much softness to the material. Clowes characters have a lot more bite. He wrote Ghost World as well and that film had a better sense of his voice than Wilson does.

Wilson also features some very jarring tonal shifts. The film can veer from sincerity to mockery in literal seconds. Harrelson and Dern have some chemistry together but the film seems more interested in pointing out how outrageous Wilson can be rather than making him feel like a character who could exist in real life. The cartoonish qualities of the story seem to get exaggerated in Johnson's hands.

I do think there are some who will enjoy Wilson. The film certainly garnered a fair amount of laughs from the audience I saw the film with. Clowes fans will be sorely disappointed. Wilson has very little of the same feel as the graphic novel. That work of fiction was able to bring a dark humor out of some sensitive issues. Wilson often treats the same sensitive issues as setups for outrageous humor. 

2.5/5