Following yesterday’s review about Nobody, let’s continue in the solo adventures taken by the leading actors of the Breaking Bad universe.
This time we shine the lights on the undisputed leader of BB, the only, inimitable creator of the Walter White persona: Bryan Cranston!
I had already seen Cranston on the big screen (way before watching BB), precisely in Godzilla. Of course, that was a mere apocalyptic action movie where the actors don’t have much room to express their talent. The attention was all on the monsters, as it is right when you choose a film of that kind.
This time I selected a story where Cranston was the absolute protagonist, while portraying a character who could be as far as possible from Walter White. That’s how I chose Wakefield. I even didn’t read the synopsis, just the comedy-drama, marriage crisis label and a 75% score on Rotten Tomatoes were enough for me to delve into the story blindfolded.
I am happy to say it was a shot in the dark that hit the target.
What’s Wakefield about? Well, it’s a movie about a fictional man named Howard Wakefield, a wealthy litigator with a successful career in New York City. Though his success comes from the City, he chose to live in the suburbs, where he and his family can live in peace far from the urban humans, while being still protected by what’s wild, expect for a cute racoon always trying to sneak into their beautiful house of character.
The challenge that fuels the story is the unhealthy relationship between Howard Wakefield and his breathtaking wife Diana (Jennifer Garner), mostly based on mutual jealousy. They provoke each other on purpose to keep the flame of passion alive after 15 years of marriage.
We can already tell that Wakefield doesn’t trust his wife and that his marriage is not really happy. One day, out of pure amusement, Wakefield sits in the loft of his garage, which has a window allowing him a full view of his house. It’s the perfect spot to spy his family on. He can see his twin kids playing, but most of his focus is on his wife. This sounds just weird, but not exceptional, until the man falls asleep there. Diana gets upset at first, immediately thinking that her husband was busy with an affair in NYC. When seeing this worry, Wakefield decides to make a long prank out of it. He disappears, hiding in his very garage where he’s sure his family will never check.
Here is where the movie gets really catchy and where we can even draw a parallel with Breaking Bad. Wakefield is not different from Walter White. Wakefield is just specular to Walter White.
Walter White was a poor chemistry teacher eager to become rich. Howard Wakefield is a rich man who decides to become poor and live like a beggar right in front of his house, till the point that he even starts feeding from leftovers that his very family (completely unaware of his fate during this time!) dumps into the bin.
The curiosity to observe, day by day, how his family copes with his absence is much stronger than any comfort. The sacrifice is huge, but the reward is the privileged view over what your loved ones do once you are gone! Are they sad? Do they really miss you? Do they think you abandoned them? What kind of gossip will they spread around? Are your children lost or do they even feel relieved? When is your wife going to think about another man? How quickly will it happen? Remember, their relationship worked on mutual jealousy. Now, Howard can enjoy his wife only when she’s in full display in front of their bedroom’s window…
A story like this could have become very banal and goody-goody, but it manages to stay real, even in the harshest aspects. Given also the restrained location (the loft and the house, only seen through the window), there was the risk to have a sequence of static events, but the authors managed to insert some “action” with flashbacks and funny supporting characters that lubricate the plot’s gears.
The movie is really entertaining and Bryan Cranston nails his role as usual.
I have the confidence to confirm Rotten Tomatoes’ score and give Wakefield a solid 7.5/10!