"Wander Darkly" -- Movie Review

 

This week, Film at Lincoln Center streamed a preview of the new drama from Lionsgate, “Wander Darkly”, starring Sienna Miller and written & directed by Tara Miele. 

Synopsis

When new parents experience a trauma, can their relationship survive the ensuing tension?

Story

Adrienne and Matteo (Miller and Diego Luna) have a joyous life-altering event when their daughter is born.  In a long-term relationship, they are unmarried – yet they purchased a house together with the plan of starting a family at some point in the future.  Now that the baby is here, however, the stress of parenthood along with the financial obligations of paying off a mortgage each month is beginning to take its toll on their relationship.  They find themselves constantly fighting, sniping and making unfounded accusations against the other.  Feeling cooped-up alone in their house with the baby, they decide that the best thing for their mental health is a bit of self-care:  they hire a babysitter and have a date night.

Unfortunately, their night out is a disaster.  Socializing only serves to heighten the strain between them.  Once their evening draws to a close, they drive home and almost immediately proceed to argue with each other.  During their quarreling, they are the victims of a horrific automobile accident in which both of them are seriously injured and are taken to the hospital.  Following a near-death experience, Adrienne eventually pulls through – but her recovery from this traumatic event is prolonged when she experiences nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks.  Eventually, Matteo turns up; although she is glad to see him, it doesn’t take long before they pick up where they left off with their fighting.

In order to help out with things, Adrienne’s parents move in.  This turns out to be something of a mixed blessing because the mother starts going after Matteo as well.  Adrienne becomes concerned that Matteo might leave her because he’s feeling as though they are ganging-up on him.  She doesn’t want to drive her partner away, but at the same time, she is finding it increasingly difficult to live with him.  After all of the bitterness and recrimination, will the two be able to find a way to remain together for the sake of their daughter?    

Review

“Wander Darkly” is one of the more aptly-titled movies you’ll see.  Both the characters and the audience wind up having a feeling as though they are wandering through a forebodingly doleful landscape.  Whether or not you will appreciate “Wander Darkly” depends on how well you might deal with feeling disoriented throughout the entire experience.  If you liked something such as “The Sixth Sense”, then there’s probably a reasonably good chance you’ll enjoy “Wander Darkly” because both are unsettling and have a surprise twist in the third act. 

Both Miller and her co-star Diego Luna give excellent performances, especially when you take into consideration the time-shifting nature of the script.  However, it’s the script itself that provides the challenge for audiences.  The story can come off as confusing and convoluted to the point that it can appear hard to follow.  One might be excused for feeling a bit off-balance throughout much of the film; it may make you want to simply give up on the whole thing after a while.  Additionally, while there are interesting scenes, you never get a sense of dramatic narrative propelling the story forward.  In this case, it may feel more like “Meander Starkly” rather than “Wander Darkly”.

Following the stream, there was an interview with Tara Miele and Sienna Miller conducted via Zoom.  Miele said that the shoot was only 24 days because they were working on a very small budget; there was a scene where one of the characters gets out of a car in the middle of a busy street and that was one of the more challenging parts of the shoot.  Due to the budget, they had only 90 seconds to get the shot because they couldn’t afford to do a total lockdown of the entire street.  The idea for the movie came from Miele’s personal experience.  Seven years ago, she and her husband were in a serious car crash; in the aftermath, she was concerned for her two daughters (at the time of the accident, one was only six months old and the other 14 years).