“Wilson” isn’t a movie made to be liked. The film is harsh and relentless as well as comical, sharp and witty. It’s certainly worth seeing, but to label it as enjoyable is a stretch.
The film centers around the titular Wilson, an aging, neurotic man played by Woody Harrelson. Wilson lives in an apartment above a karate studio, and every room in his house is stacked high with old, paperback books. While a bit excessive, director Craig Johnson has succeeded in making Wilson such a believable character that, by the end of the film, one wouldn’t expect his home to look like anything else.
The film opens with a monologue from Wilson. He fairly quickly outlines some of his major philosophies in life, commenting on how everyone seems absorbed in their phones and how he longs for real human connections.
The opening monologue is off-putting. Nothing about the character is known, and to hear such deep, personal beliefs from the outset is jarring. His monologue feels like a lecture, as if he’s looking down on everyone who’s listening.
It’s because Wilson is, in fact, looking down on everyone who’s listening.
He spends the whole movie looking for someone to monologue to. He sits beside a stranger on an empty bus, and within 30 seconds, he launches into stories about his relationship with his father. When he reconnects with his estranged wife, he pours his heart out to her while she sleeps. He’s a man desperate to be listened to, and he’s willing to ignore social cues to do it.
It’s endearing, in a way, largely thanks to Harrelson’s performance. He does a fantastic job balancing the holier-than-thou, egocentric aspects of the character and the desperate, easy-to-empathize-with parts.
Strangely, when Wilson forces his ideals or opinions upon other characters, they respond positively. Perhaps it’s because they have no other choice; Wilson accosts one man at a urinal and an unsuspecting student on a cross-country bus. On the other hand, perhaps these people are looking for that same connection, and Wilson is simply bringing it out of them.
After the death of his father, Wilson attempts to reconnect with his ex-wife, who left him with no warning. However, when Wilson does find his wife Pippi (Laura Dern), he learns that although she said she had an abortion two decades ago, she actually carried the child to term and put the baby girl up for adoption. The two seek out their estranged daughter, trying to reconnect and make up for lost time.
While the situation is based in reality — biological parents and children seek out each other all the time — the manner in which Pippi and Wilson go about tracking down Claire, their overweight, bullied, high school-age daughter, is hilariously sensationalized.
The dynamic of the three of them together, a “family” for the first time in 17 years, makes for a handful of original and sometimes uncomfortable laughs. One particularly heartwarming scene sees Wilson, Pippi and Claire in a car bonding over their mutual hatred of Carly Rae Jepsen. The three are all on the fringes of their respective societies, and over the course of the film all of them, in different ways, rebel against and challenge a lot more than just “Call Me Maybe.”
Not every scene is a winner. The sadder, emotional scenes that forgo attempts at humor simply aren’t as well done. It’s difficult to buy into Wilson’s tears or anger when he tackled a 16-year-old to the ground 20 minutes beforehand.
Nearly every comedic scene, however, has merit. David Warshofsky plays Olsen, an old friend of Wilson. Upon reconnecting with him, Wilson quickly remembers why he and Olsen had grown apart, and the short-lived reunion and subsequent falling out is one of the funniest scenes in the film.
Dern gives a solid performance as Pippi, a recovering addict who is attempting to get her feet back under her. Isabella Amara does equally well in the role of ireire, accurately displaying the familiar angst of a confused high school student.
However, the film isn’t Pippi or Claire’s story. Ignoring that the film is named after him, the story truly belongs to Wilson, perhaps because the whole thing is framed through his view of the world.
The idealized reunion can’t last forever, however, especially when Claire’s adoptive parents are unaware of Wilson’s contact. The film’s third act takes a sharp, unexpected turn that works in its favor. The last 30 to 40 minutes are comical, uniquely heartwarming and poignantly depressing.
The whole film is that way to a certain degree. In the same way that it’s unclear how to feel about Wilson the character, it’s incredibly difficult to pin down “Wilson” the movie. Wilson is both insufferable and easy to root for.
However, he never claims to be a perfect person. All Wilson is looking for is a human connection and that, at least, is something to be admired.
