‘Demolition’: Jake Gyllenhaal’s lout leaves a mess in his wake

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Jake Gyllenhaal in “Demolition.” | Fox Searchlight

Jake Gyllenhaal is in that zone where he’s about as interesting as any actor of his generation, but even Gyllenhaal’s best efforts aren’t enough to save “Demolition” from itself.

What a mess. What a pretentious, uneven, off-putting, not-nearly-as-clever-as-it-thinkd-it-is MESS.

Within a minute of meeting Gyllenhaal’s self-entitled, smug, emotionally distant Davis Mitchell, we wonder: What’s this guy’s problem? A whole movie later, we’re still not really sure — but we definitely know we don’t care.

Davis’ entire adult life has been handed to him on a platinum platter. (Other than being told Davis is a scrapper from Jersey, we really don’t know much about his upbringing.) He’s a successful Wall Street investment banker who is being groomed to take over the firm run by Chris Cooper’s Phil, in no small part because he’s married to Phil’s daughter Julia (Heather Lind).

How wonderful is Julia? She’s beautiful, she’s kind, she’s devoted to Davis, and she works with special needs children. She’s THAT wonderful, folks. And yet Davis can hardly be bothered to listen to Julia as she reminds him about some day-to-day elements of their lives.

SPOILER ALERT, but only if you haven’t seen the trailer or read anything about this film: Davis and Julia are driving together when their car is struck. Julia is driving, but she doesn’t see it coming, because for approximately the 100th time in motion picture history, an auto accident happens because the driver keeps looking at her front seat companion for lingering gazes instead of FOCUSING ON THE ROAD.

Davis reacts to his wife’s death with an absence of emotion. Still at the hospital, he meticulously wipes his wife’s blood from his designer shoes, and then he casually pops six quarters into a vending machine to get some Peanut M&M’s.

When the bag gets snagged by that annoying circular dispensing device and fails to drop, Davis takes pen to paper and writes a long letter of complaint to the vending machine company. This becomes the decidedly unsubtle device for Davis to tell us what he’s going through: In the guise of writing complaint letters, he gives us the back story of how he met Julia and tries to explain why he feels nothing about her dying.

Conveniently enough, the customer service rep for the vending machine company lives nearby. Her name is Karen Moreno (she’s played by Naomi Watts in a thankless role), and she’s so taken with Davis’ letters she calls him in the middle of the night, and then she starts following him around — and eventually they strike up a relationship.

We don’t know that much about how Davis comported himself prior to Julia’s death, but in scene after scene in “Demolition,” the new widower is a borderline sociopath with zero sense of self-awareness and no social graces. He’s rude to his grieving in-laws, he becomes a liability in the office and he literally demolishes the house he shared with Julia. (Perhaps it’s an attempt at black comedy when Davis buys a bulldozer on eBay and rams it into his house while the neighbors look on — but shouldn’t somebody call the cops?)

The talented director Jean-Marc Vallée (“Dallas Buyers Club”) attempts to shock the senses with jarring, ear-rattling music and artfully executed, indie-style camera moves, but almost nothing feels organic or supportive of the story. Davis keeps smashing and breaking things — a refrigerator, his computer, his TVs, his very home — because he wants to demolish the walls around his heart and he wants to feel something. Got it.

A subplot about the friendship between Davis and Karen’s young son, a sensitive rebel coming to terms with his sexuality, feels gratuitous, creepy and condescending. If Davis thinks he’s helping this kid discover his voice by taking him into the woods, donning a bulletproof vest and encouraging the child to shoot him — please.

On the few occasions when “Demolition” sheds its shallow cynicism, it’s treacly and manipulative. This is one of those movies made by smart people about smart people that gives the audience no credit.

★1⁄2

Fox Searchlight presents a film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Bryan Sipe. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (for language, some sexual references, drug use and disturbing behavior). Opens Friday at local theaters. 

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