Sadly Over-hyped

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I'm used to seeing amazing performances by Jake Gyllenhaal as we all are, but what he did in Demolition was just something else. This was definitely his movie and was the focal point. A must see.

Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is in a car crash with his wife who is fatally injured. He is an investment banker who works for his father-in- law. After a period of time, Phil expects Davis to pull himself together, get back to work, and administer his wife's trust account.From the beginning Davis reacts in bizarre ways to the death his wife. It starts at the hospital when the vending machine malfunctions and he writes to the company with his complaints. As Davis begins to slip further and further into his own world, he stumbles into a platonic relationship with the customer service rep Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts). As his anger increases and he is still without tears, he purchases various took kits and power tools and begins to literally demolish his world, one piece at a time.Interesting ending, makes you wonder what you do if this happened to you?

As others have mentioned, we all deal with grief in our own way. But I thought Jake's character was intelligent enough that he should at least admitted to himself and others he was not being normal in his reaction to the sudden death of someone he was supposedly sharing the rest of his life with. The writer portrayed him as this incredibly self centered human being and then his suddenly becoming this very caring person to a troubled teen. It felt like it was just thrown in to make us feel he wasn't a total low life. Somehow To make us all forget everything we sensed prior .. Made little sense. Then his final suggestion is suppose to make us feel all fuzzy inside for him ??. That bordered on the ridiculous. Actors were all great, just an very immature script.

**Warning, this review contains spoilers** This beautifully acted film takes on the emotion of "grief" and goes wild with it. Every character is at a different stage of grief. Grief is a deeply personal emotion. It can come in stages or all at once. For Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal), who is just beginning his voyage through the grief process, the process is slow. He has just lost his wife Julia (Lind) and cannot understand why he is so numb. In this state, he questions everything about himself. Is he a monster? Does he know how to do anything? Is he just an empty soulless shell? His old life was lived quickly. He recounts his life using a series of letters to Karen Moreno (Watts), a customer service agent for the company that stocks the candy machines in the hospital. He confesses his sins to her, but really they are his fears. Because he didn't stop and smell the roses, he may have lost the ability to love anyone or anything. He simply followed a series of to-do lists and rarely took the time to enjoy anything. In contrast, Karen feels too much and uses drugs to make her numb. She misses how simple things were, how easy it was to love her son Chris (Lewis) when he was young. Now that he is grown, and facing his own challenges, she can't seem to connect with him or anyone. Her boyfriend Carl (Wilson) thinks she is happy with him, but in reality she's just a good actress. She understands how broken she is and hides it well. That's why she is so drawn to Davis and his grief. He is honest about who he is, he doesn't pretend that he's feeling something when he isn't.Chris starts out being the unruly teenager, too angry to connect with anyone but painfully observant and jaded. His interactions with Davis are comedic and inappropriate at times, but Chris admires Davis' honesty as well. While Davis destroys objects to understand why he is so numb, Chris destroys objects from a place of anger and pain. His pain stems from the fact that he cannot be the person he wants to be. As he questions his sexuality, he admires Davis for being himself. While Chris and Karen look up to Davis, Carl and Julia's parents, Phil (Cooper) and Margot (Draper), are troubled by him. Carl is afraid of losing Karen to Davis. While Phil and Margot are disillusioned by their son-in-law, who was a different person when Julia was alive. They believe that Julia brought out the best in people, including Davis. Now that she is gone, they feel they have lost the version of Davis that they liked. They are frustrated, bewildered and saddened by his choices, including the dismantling of objects that need to be fixed and his new friendship with Karen. Through all of Davis' interactions with these characters full of grief, he slowly lets go of his numbness. The defining moment being when meets and forgives the man who drove the car that crashed into him and Julia. He finally lets his emotions flood in and he cries. He begins to remember the good times with his wife and his happiest moments. That's when he finally realizes that he is indeed capable of love and that he loved Julia. In the film's end, Davis witnesses the demolition of a group of buildings while Chris observes him from afar. Davis is no longer deconstructing himself. He is now living with his grief and simply observing destruction from a distance. He has moved to a different stage of grief, not quite acceptance, but no longer in shock. Chris has also moved on to a different stage. We first met him in the anger stage, but he has finally moved on to acceptance. The film is well-acted and has a good premise but doesn't quite deliver on its message. The core structure is there but I wanted more follow-through. The relationship between Davis and Chris was artfully done, but director Jean-Marc Vallée did not explore the supporting characters very deeply. With the exception of Phil and Karen, the other characters were more props than anything else. They seemed to be a means to an end, which is a great injustice because they were also grieving. While Phil and Karen had more development than the others, they themselves were perfunctory because we didn't really witness them change. I think this was a missed opportunity because they are so important to the love story between Davis and Julia, which is also not fully explored. That said, the superb acting, the wonderful interaction between Davis and Chris, and the honest portrayal of the grief process, makes this film worthy of a view.