Wildwood

Grade: C+

This will be one of my more difficult reviews to write. Did I like Wildwood? Not really. Is it a bad movie? Not in a technical sense. In fact, I liked and even loved a few things about it. Do I recommend it? Not for someone like me. Would I recommend it to fans of a fantasy story like this? Probably. Do I blame anyone who got something out of this? Not at all. I totally understand.

I’ll give credit where it’s due. This is a beautiful film to look at, with one of my favorite scores of the year. The Decemberists’ “The Better Part of Bravery” is terrific. It’s not even nominated yet, but I’d give it the Best Original Song Oscar right now if I could. Just as the story was beginning to lose me, an interesting twist halfway through reinvigorated my interest. The plot involves a child kidnapping. A murder of crows swoops up a toddler from a park in Portland and flies him into an enchanted forest. I appreciated that in the midst of a labyrinthine fantasy story, the parents have an observation that momentarily snaps us back into the real world, when they wonder what else they can do. After all, they’ve called the police, and there’s an Amber Alert about it.

If Odyssean storybook tales are your thing, you will eat Wildwood up. I grew very weary of it as characters and subplots continued to pile up. The baby’s big sister ventures into the woods to rescue him, while a socially awkward acquaintance who has a crush on her tags along. Once in there, they go through everything imaginable until I felt far removed from the original plot. I can go along with talking animals, witchcraft, and other forms of magic, but a teenage girl taking about 10 seconds to perform an impromptu vertical free solo climb a couple hundred feet up a cliff? Twice? Nuh-uh. Can’t buy it.

Two longstanding movie cliches rear their ugly heads during the climactic fight. First we have the moment where a villain has the hero cornered. They are about to take that last fatal shot/stab/etc, when they are hit with something from behind or at a distance, that takes them down. It’s the hero’s buddy, suddenly showing up, not a moment too soon, to take care of business. And then there’s the Fallacy of the Talking Killer. The main villain would have accomplished what they wanted to if they had just shut up. I wanted to, but couldn’t quite get there with Wildwood.

The host of my favorite movie review podcast used to introduce the show by saying “we aim to be the only review destination you will ever need.” They magically stopped saying that after I left a review on Apple where I basically said “I love the show, but that one bit in the intro sounds arrogant.” While I hope people read my stuff, I don’t expect anyone to read ONLY my stuff. By all means, surf around. Get a second, third, and fourth opinion. I do it. After my take on Wildwood, I bet you’ll want to do that, now more than ever.

Grade: C+