Review: Wish I Was Here

144. Wish I Was Here
It's ironic that for a film titled "Wish I Was Here", I spent almost all of its runtime wishing that I were anywhere else but here, in a theater showing this film. Sometimes when I go into a movie expecting not to like it, I am pleasantly surprised. Sometimes it's even worse than I'd suspected. This was an example of the latter.

The movie's fatal flaw (and it's a doozy) is making its protagonist one of the most obnoxious, selfish, contemptible, abhorrent, crass, despicable, rotten human beings I've seen on film in a long time. The audience is supposed to root for this guy? He's nothing but a self-righteous asshole. I know that Zach Braff seems to only be capable of playing the "man-child" role, but here that role is taken to a new low. The fact that this character has two children is disgusting. I think we're meant to laugh as he tries to get out of fulfilling even the most basic familial obligations, but I didn't. Not even once. The character wants to become an actor, but to him that means not holding down even a basic "actor's job" like waiting tables, instead letting his wife go to her menial, uninteresting job every day to support all four member of their family. Ha balks at the idea of contributing in any way, whining and complaining when his wife suggests he homeschools the children when they can no longer afford private school.

There are (very) few moments when Braff is off camera and the film briefly shows some promise. Some of the other actors are trying hard enough that even a few scenes with his character almost threaten to become watchable, but they never quite make it. His character truly poisons the entire film. And for the tone that I think the film was going for, there really is a surfeit of profanity. It's all over the place and really felt unnecessary.

The best part of the movie was when some brief gameplay from "Mass Effect 3" was shown. I was grateful for this, as it allowed my mind to temporarily wander, thinking more about how awesome "Mass Effect" is than about how terrible this movie was.

F