A film about discovering yourself is always a tricky path to go down, especially when you're talking about midlife. Thomas Haden Church and Paul Giamatti made it work wonders in the 2004 dramedy Sideways while Ben Stiller made me and several other people cringe last year by making The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. The newest midlife crises/discovering your purpose in life film is a project that was funded through Kickstarter by Zach Braff of the long running, highly syndicated television hospital comedy "Scrubs," much to many people's chagrin (he does supposedly get a ludicrous amount of royalties from that show after all.)
The film is Wish I Was Here, a dramedy in which Braff plays Aidan, a struggling but hopeful actor whose father, Gabe (Mandy "You killed my father. Prepare to die." Patinkin) has been paying for his children, Tucker (Pierce Gagnon) and Grace (Joey King) to go to private Jewish school. However, Gabe comes with an overload of bad news when he tells Aidan he not only can no longer pay for their education but he's also dying of severe cancer. All the while, Aidan's supportive wife, Sarah (Kate Hudson) is miserably working a day job to support the family and Aidan must convince his estranged brother Noah (Josh Gad) to actually take time and see their dying father.
While I will admit that the film features a lot of manipulation on director-co-writer Braff's part (he wrote the script with brother Adam,) the film still managed to get to me fairly often. I was surprised at how beautiful and touching the film was and how universal the issues it dealt with were. Everyone has dealt with death and the film knows that so it's not fast and loose with the subject nor is it overly preachy.
The acting is pretty exceptional here, with everyone turning in an excellent performance. The biggest standout to me, however, was Gad. Having been a fan of his for quite some time now, I have always found him to be a superior comic talent. Here, he proves that he also has an abundance of dramatic skills. He gives the character of Noah, who easily could have been played as too much of a bumbling idiot, a large amount of depth and sympathy. He shows that Noah is not a character who just wants to be separated from the world. Rather, he wants to become someone and cares about everyone but can't seem to find the exact way to show it. There is also excellent supporting work from Jim Parsons as a fellow struggling actor who Aidan seems to have a knack of running into. Alexander Chaplin (the nervous looking speech writer for the mayor on TV's "Spin City" and an incredibly underrated actor) also turns in a wonderfully underplayed comedic performance as a sympathetic Rabbi with whom Aidan turns to for help temporarily.
While Wish I Was Here is not a perfect film (like I said...it is somewhat deceiving in its own way and there are some overly gooey moments, in particular a metaphor about wanting to be "the hero of a story,") this is still a fairly wonderful film that I enjoyed from the first frame to the last. In a summer of explosions, gun play and raunchy comedies that seem intent on playing it safe, this is a delightful way to spend two hours in an air conditioned theater.
(4 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for language and some sexual content)
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