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As some of you may recall from my "What Makes Real Horror" entry on my blog, psychological thrillers, even the supernatural ones, are indeed my jam. Few things are as terrifying as the uncertainty and unreliability of your own perception of events. When done well, it can create striking images and lead you down a path where the truth is not at all what you suspected. Classics like The Sixth Sense, Jacob's Ladder, and Oculus come to mind. When done poorly, it can bore you with unenticing storylines, uninteresting characters, and plot twists you either spot from miles away or provide no satisfactory ultimate impact. Duds like Ghosts of War and the terrible "remake" of Jacob's Ladder come to mind. The point is that part of what makes good psychological thrillers so enthralling and challenging to make is the amount of effort needed to create a narrative that tricks the audience pleasantly and entertainingly.
Today's subject, Wander, is a psychological thriller that is under the impression it's genuinely clever but refuses to acknowledge any of its painfully obvious faults, to the point where you almost feel bad for calling them out. It's like reading a 6th grader's terrible fan-fiction and not wanting to provide honest feedback for fear of hurting their feelings. But, as I have quoted many times before, "The crulest thing you can do to an artist is tell them that their work is brilliant when it isn't!"
Taking place in New Mexico, the story follows private detective Arthur Bretnik (Aaron Eckhart). One day he is hired by a grieving mother whose daughter was mysteriously murdered and is afraid to approach the local police because they might be involved in something secret and dangerous. In need of funds, Arthur takes the case. However, it may be a bit more challenging because he also suffers from paranoia and belief in conspiracy theories following the tragic death of his young daughter, which he believes was a deliberate attempt to throw him off a previous murder case. As Arthur delves deeper into the case, he begins to suspect his paranoia may be legitimate. Apparently, he stumbles upon a secret organization trapping immigrants and implanting them with experimental tracking microchips that can potentially kill them should they step out of line. The only question is how much of what he sees is real?
Sadly, all that really needs to be said is that the film is predictable! Everything in this film has been done better elsewhere or is so cliche and overused that nothing has any genuine impact. Even the film's laughable attempt at an ending twist only felt hollow and needlessly pandering to the wrong crowd.
To illustrate what I mean, I need to provide some context and SPOILERS.
Many people are under the incredible delusion that we are being subjected to secret government experiments and super-secret microchipping, as in they're using things like vaccines and other such necessary medical treatments to implant microscopic pieces of technology to track our moves, control our thoughts, and make us complacent so we won't rebel against anything. These kinds of toxic and unscientific rumors are mostly spread by the likes of FOX News and Alex Jones (a wretched and disgusting excuse of a human being if ever I've seen one). They are perpetuated at the cost of everyone's well-being.
The film decides to take that same concept of government experimentation and go with a plot twist that validates his conspiracy and proclaims that, indeed, the powers that be are out to get us all. While I don't deny that our government has never been completely in our favor, the idea of pandering to the toxic and down-right dangerous low-common-denominator sickens me incredibly!
This movie has an agenda, rather intentional or not, and it's not the good kind! While I did appreciate some of the performances and the cinematography, this film is an embarrassment and a shame given the modern political climate.
Don't bother with this piece of cinematic excrement.
Ladies & gentlemen, I am TheNorm; thank you all for reading.
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