Wander Darkly Review

Wander Darkly is a conundrum of a film. A deep dive into the fracturing of a relationship, there’s a lot to like about it: strong leading performances from Sienna Miller and Diego Luna as the central couple along with interesting directorial choices from writer-director Tara Miele that lend the film a surrealist tinge that keeps your interest while the story starts to flounder under its significant narrative confusion. But it’s the story that just doesn’t work in the end, which is a shame as it’s clear what Miele wanted to accomplish with her tale – and boy, would that have been an interesting film indeed.

Miller and Luna are Adrienne and Matteo, a couple who have eschewed marriage, but who own a house and recently had a baby. Unfortunately, as is almost always the case, having a child hasn’t helped to bridge the chasm between them – it’s only magnified their issues. While driving home from a party one evening, they are in a devastating car accident which leaves Adrienne convinced she died as a result of the impact. From there, Matteo attempts to convince her she is alive and well, and the duo walk through their life together, confronting old hurts, discussing missed opportunities, and exploring why they fell in love in the first place. And if that was all the film was concerned with – holding a mirror to their broken relationship and asking the pair to honestly confront their mistakes, that would have been a really great film. Miller and Luna are stellar navigating the emotional depths of their characters, and both Adrienne and Matteo feel like fully-realized characters. And yes, the story is told from Adrienne’s perspective, so Miller is asked to do a lot of the heavy lifting, but both performances are wonderful.

But, the story isn’t really about a couple taking stock of their relationship as it hits a breaking point. Or, it is, but it isn’t. Without giving the game away – and yes, there’s a puzzle box aspect to the story that works until it doesn’t, as is so often the case with puzzle boxes – the film ultimately left me feeling very lukewarm. Visually, the surreal mystery of the first two thirds of the film works incredibly well. As Adrienne continues to question her current and past realities (as she and Matteo attempt to come to a consensus on what happened at key moments of their relationship), Miele creates a twisted and confusing palette, with bright colors fading into more muted tones, clear water growing brackish and soiled. We can understand Adrienne’s fear as she loses control of her world in her post-accident confusion. But the resolution to this portion of the story is neither surprising nor well-executed. And the intense, complex visuals disappear instantly, ushering in the falling action and resolution of the story, but robbing the film of the elements that made it compelling to watch. Once the visual-style disappears and the story settles into a traditionally paced narrative, the holes in the plot become more pronounced and the ending doesn’t feel earned.

Rather than hedging between two extremes, Miele would have been best served by selecting a single vision and following through until the end. Either continue pushing the visual boundaries of the story (which, in turn, would help paper over a script that leaves a good deal to be desired in terms of stilted dialogue and a supporting cast that never develops beyond two-dimensional characters), or tell the story without those flourishes – drill down into the emotional heart of this relationship and keep that emotional honesty present even after the core mystery of the story is solved. While the second option would also require additional work on the script, the performances of Miller and Luna would go a long way to unifying the story from start to finish.

Without a clear narrative through line to match the performances and visuals, however, Wander Darkly fails to realize its potential. The ending, while satisfying on a character level, feels rushed and lacks the emotional heft of the early portion of the story. I found myself hoping for another twist, another intriguing shot, a chance for Miller to get to dive deeper into Adrienne’s psyche one final time. Instead, I felt shut out and confused – unsure of just when the characters and the story decided to jump the tracks into a conventional dramatic resolution. And I was plain disappointed with the results.

Wander Darkly is in select theatres now and is available via video on demand to stream.