Wakefield (2016)

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Bryan Cranston's character devolve, much as his character in Breaking Bad did. He does a wonderful job showing us what made his character do what he did. Jennifer Garner is great as his wife. Beverly D'Angelo is amusing as Jennifer Garner's mother. There are dark moments, but also periods of levity. Bryan Cranston has to carry the majority of the film as we see everything through his eyes or as he interprets it. It is a unique way to show a person as they go through a possible break down. Who among us hasn't wanted to walk away from our life at some point? And haven't we wondered if we'd be missed and by whom? A must see film!

Fmovies: Bryan Cranston did a great job as always, but the plot was a little drawn out. Interesting idea for a movie, there isn't much explanation as to why he hid away for so long and why no-one ever checked the attic, but quirky and funny at times. The ending was a little frustrating but overall a decent but not amazing movie.

Let's start first with Bryan Cranston's performance. When watching this movie, I think it would be easy for someone to overlook just how good he is. 85% of the movie is Cranston sitting in a room talking to himself, and yet he is able to bring such dimension and drama to it. He makes it look so easy and natural, and that's why it would be easy to overlook his performance. He absolutely carries the film, and it does not work without his ability as an actor. Jennifer Garner is also really good in this movie, however she is absolutely outshined by how brilliant Cranston is. Her role was also minute enough that really anyone could have played her character, whereas I don't think just anyone could have played Howard Wakefield. What struck me most about Wakefield was how much of a character study it was. It was actually more of a situational study. What does an average human being reduce themselves to when stripped of all their possessions? When they become entirely deprogrammed from society? This idea has been explored before, in films like Cast Away, but never quite in this way...

Wakefield fmovies. If you enjoy watching psychotic middle aged men completely abandon their families while completely isolating themselves from society then this movie is for you!! Two exciting hours of watching Bryan Cranston become increasingly more disgusting and manipulative with the bonus of seeing him defecate in a bucket. After you survive those two hours, you are rewarded with the most insulting ending you will ever see in a movie. Not only, will you never get that time back, you will waste more time being angry at that complete bs ending AND writing a review on IMDB because the ending was seriously THAT bad.

I waited and waited for an ending that would that could possibly make his animalistic behavior admirable, but it never came. VERY difficult to watch, I at least wanted so see the families reaction, but NOTHING!

Wakefield is a film starring Bryan Cranston as the man who hides in a garage for months looking at the events in his house and everyone thinking he's missing. Basically, he's looking at his life without him.

It's an interesting premise on it's own, but the movie never really does anything about that and the plot barely goes anywhere through the entire movie. And yeah, don't expect much of a resolution at the end. This is something that works on paper, but doesn't translate to the screen very well. One of the biggest problems is also a lack of interesting and creative direction. If a director made it stranger and more unique, it would have been a lot more interesting. This way, it just doesn't stick out. But still, it's filled with powerful performances, especially from Bryan Cranston, who never fails to impress and pretty much carries the entire movie with his performance and he might be one of the few reasons it wasn't completely uninteresting. The premise itself, a few interesting but not memorable enough moments and the premise are what saves this movie from being bad. But it's not particularly good either.

While the run-time isn't long the movie is longer than it should be and by the last third the end can't come soon enough. Only watch if you're a big fan of Cranston. Other than that, you won't find much here.