Female Film Critics 24/375
While writer/director Charlie Kaufman’s films –Syndoche, New York, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation – are, admittedly, an acquired taste, his latest venture into dual identities and dreamlike realities is his most eerie, abstract and confusing.
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So many questions occurred to me whilst watching this live-action adaptation of British author Hugh Lofting’s beloved veterinarian who could communicate with animals. Like, why didn’t they use its original title: The Voyage of Dr. Dolittle? What’s with Robert Downey Jr.’s bizarre accent? Why don’t the lip movements of the computer-generated creatures match their dialogue? And why have audiences never connected with cinematic depictions of this childhood hero?
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Wild Rose is, in some ways, better because it indulges and then rises above the conventional arc of aspiring artist stories. Director Tom Harper has demonstrated his affection for the daring and atypical with, for example, his work on one of my favorite British television series, Peaky Blinders. Wild Rose delivers energy, thoughtful evaluation of dreams, and assertion of real values.
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At what point do you give up on a dream? Films about aspiring musicians almost universally consider this question, mostly from a male point of view. Movies about the female experience either skew juvenile or are thoroughly mocked, and it’s arguable whether the latest extremely successful version of A Star is Born provided enough autonomy to the character played by Lady Gaga. Into this landscape arrives Wild Rose, a movie that follows a recognizable narrative flow but features a strong performance from Jessie Buckley as a Scottish woman struggling to break into a musical genre that isn’t her country’s own.
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