Film review: Wish I Was Here

Newsroom 23/02/2015 | 09:52

Man grows up and learns that family matters most when a crisis pushes him to make life changes: we certainly have been here before. But while Zach Braff’s gentle comedy-drama doesn’t cover new ground, it works its familiar formula with charm and wit, thanks to endearingly quirky characters and a sharp script.

Aidan Bloom (Braff) is 35 and an actor (read: struggling), working his way wearily through a series of hopeless and hapless auditions as he waits for his big break. Understanding wife Sarah (Kate Hudson) supports the family – pious teenage daughter Grace (Joey King) and rambunctious son Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) – with her dreary data entry job, while the kids’ Orthodox Jewish school fees are paid by Aidan’s gruff father Gabe (Mandy Patinkin) – until one day when they’re not.

With the family unable to meet the fees themselves and a switch to public school not possible until next term, Aidan decides to home school the children. When the first day ends with both of them duct-taped to a chair, it is clear that new methods are required. There follows some predicable paternal bonding and epiphanic moments, as events bring the wider Bloom family closer together.

Such a plot could rapidly descend into daytime soap sentimentality, but this risk is averted by the irreverent screenplay, written by the director’s brother Adam Braff. In particular towards the beginning of the film, wry one-liners come thick and fast, with neat observations on universal themes such as parenting, religion and failure. Aidan is a lapsed Jew, and this part of his life is beautifully mined for humor, particularly his awkward interactions with the rabbis at his children’s Orthodox school.

The characterization and acting are another strong point. Aside from a cameo by The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons, Kate Hudson is the only real star name – the film was funded on Kickstarter. This low-key cast impresses, with Aidan’s slacker Comic-Con attending brother Noah (Josh Gad) providing some offbeat laughs as he prepares for the convention.

As the movie proceeds, the comedy largely gives way to the drama. The impending Sad Event is handled sensitively and elicits emotion, but this plotline has been repeatedly rehashed in Hollywood and could have been tightened up. Things are rounded off rather too neatly and predictably, undermining some of the intelligent observations about the sacrifices and disappointments of adulthood made earlier on.

But while the second half does not quite live up to the first, Wish I Was Here is still a very likable film, full of warmth and wit. Adam and Sarah’s career disillusionment and imperfect parenting – and the way they muddle through it all – will resonate with many adults. Hope blooms.

Debbie Stowe

Director: Zach Braff

Starring: Zach Braff, Kate Hudson, Joey King, Pierce Gagnon, Mandy Patinkin, Josh Gad, Ashley Greene, Jim Parsons

On at: Cinemateca Union, Corso, Elvira Popescu, Europa, Studioul Horia Bernea – NCRR, Scala, Grand Cinema & More, Hollywood Multiplex, Cinema City Cotroceni

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