As Paul Dano himself put it, he wanted to write about "dysfunctional families" (meaning unbalanced, dysfunctional, disintegrating families).
In "Wild Life", he used only two fires to perfectly capture the disintegration of a family. One was a long, wild, aggressive and destructive wildfire that swept through the mountains of eastern Montana. This wildfire was a fuse that gave the male protagonist the idea of putting out the fire. Rather than fighting the fire, it is better to say that he wants to escape from the current environment, his wife, son, work, that gloomy environment. These things are the source of high pressure, I mean everything related to daily life, because they are trivial, full of too many emotions, and also burdened with husbands, fathers. So he'd rather not be a cashier than a lost and found job, and go to the east to take a $1-an-hour job and play a firefighting hero. Part of the reason is self-esteem.
Wildfire is free from fetters and restraints, hinting at the male protagonist's true motivation for running to put out the fire: 30% self-esteem and 70% boredom. Fed up with his wife's incomprehension, fed up with disappointment at work, fed up with bad luck and his own failures. When you understand the so-called "power of boredom" in life, the male protagonist's behavior instantly becomes easy to understand. Just like the suddenness and continual duration of the fire, through Paul Dano's calm water lens, I saw the moment of boredom, followed by the escape of the male protagonist, like a chronic disease, making the people around him unbearable.
The wife also had the idea of "getting rid of" when her husband fled. In fact, before that, her running to Y to teach people to swim was considered an escape. Her husband's unemployment was only an objective reason, not a subjective one. With the deepening of the movie, we found that the wife's heart is very fiery. The title song designed by the composer David Lang from New York for his wife is the pop music of the 1960s. It is joyful, lively, with some small bubbles, and these pursuits of happiness are not found in the husband, but from the husband. Found on an elderly man. After being kissed by Miller, the heroine sat in the car and said, My heart is beating so fast. At this time, she was like a little girl who had just "encountered" a love simmer.
Undoubtedly, Miller's legend is the key, which is what his husband lacks. In addition, he is rich, which his husband can't give. When in love, lovers like to elevate the qualities that each other does not have. After marriage, they begin to choose to find qualities that they do not have in each other from a third party.
The male protagonist came back contented, and brought a so-called "good news". Yes, the fire will not change a person's nature. He is still so selfish and happy to escape (moving is his way of coping). And the heroine has made up her mind, rented a house for herself, and is about to start a new life. There is a second fire here.
The male protagonist sets fire to Miller's house as revenge. Why isn't this fire a portrait of the male protagonist's heart? Always thinking about doing something earth-shattering, and burning Plan A, Plan B... Seemingly menacing, but in fact self-destruction. Seeing his wife leave, he didn't think about his own problems for the first time, but instead asked whether the other party was cheating. From the beginning to the end, it was difficult for him to realize his lofty and cowardly nature, or he didn't want to admit it.
Of course, the wife also has problems, such as kissing Miller in front of her son, openly cheating and so on. But having said so much, I don't think Paul Dano wants to condemn either party, nor is this a superficial story of a man abandoning his family and a woman cheating. He threw so many questions that he didn't even give an answer until the end. But it is undoubtedly a movie with no difficulty in substitution at all. People of any stage and age will not see the same.
Our life is full of variables, it is not a prime number, but more like an even number, easy to decompose and easy to condense. The fire in the movie is not in the east, not in the blizzard, nor is it some kind of substance that will be ignited by gasoline, but the obsession lurking in everyone's heart. Wanting a better life, wanting a husband who can make money, wanting to put all your energy into dreams, wanting to be decent, or just wanting to be crazy for a while... These can all be the reasons why we are tired of the existing life, It is also the driving force for escape. Those obsessions are the rolling flames in the vulgar life, which will be extinguished, but will always breed a kind of throbbing. I think, even if they get back together in the end and live a sweet and happy life of three again, there will always be a day of boredom, don't underestimate the power of boredom, when we decide to accept the mediocrity and boredom of life, it always makes a comeback, reminding Another possibility for our lives.
So how I understand Miller's words, at 4,000 meters, he turned off the engine and listened to the roar of the V-hawk. It will feel good, not because of those noisy voices, but because there is no bondage. Family, responsibility, is undoubtedly the yoke of our boredom, admit it. If the meaning of love is not the blown "flatness is true", but the fierceness after the storm, then about marriage, I'm really not sure, maybe "flatness" is just us convincing ourselves to believe in the power of love Lies, only in this way can we accept marriage and the trivial and boring after marriage.
It is worth mentioning that at the end, Paul Dano paid tribute to his friend, Icelandic music master Jóhann Jóhannsson, who passed away suddenly in February last year, just after the film's premiere day at Sundance, Only two weeks.
Three years ago, Paul Dano had a wonderful performance in Sonautia's "Youth", and the film's music production was performed by David Lang, who won three Oscars that year. nominate. This David Lang is the producer of the music of this film, and he likes the electronic music he designed in this film very much. As the son's appearance in the film, it outlines the emotional changes of the characters very well, which is a little erratic and very subtle.
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