The Living Wake tells the story of a self important and undiscovered genius living his last day on Earth. Determined to control as much of his legacy as possible he decides to visit his friends and enemies, to make peace or to exacerbate rivalries, to culminate in a final bow at his own wake.
This dark comedy played the festival circuit a few years ago and is now finding its way out into the world on DVD, and in amongst the glitter strewn Hollywood fare it does the soul good to shine a light on the films that might otherwise be left on the shelves.
Speaking to IndieWire first time director Sol Tryon talked of his approach to the unconventional nature of the film,
I believe that all comedy, however absurdist in nature, is rooted in some form of realism and truth. Like all great parables, however outrageous they may seem, there is a golden nugget of honesty and truth that is at the root of the story, and that truth was what was so striking about this story. I wanted this film to appeal to the intrinsic nature in all of us, while at the same time making us laugh really hard.
He succeeds far better in the former, than the latter as unless you warm to Mike O’Connell’s outlandish, booze infused egomaniac you will miss the potent wordplay and risk reducing his absurdity to imbecility and miss the broad comedy on offer here. O’Connell’s embodiment of self-styled genius K. Roth Binew has roots as much in Restoration comedy as in the seasonal pantomimes which litter the seasides each Christmas, yet as the beating heart of this film he is ebullient and engaging.
Mention must be made of Jesse Eisenberg, whose Adventure/Zombie Land escapades have catapulted him famewards, and while I enjoyed his performances in those films, in his role here as Mills, Binew’s biographer, manservant and rickshaw driver, he is far more interesting. Subservient and melancholic, he acts as translator of the flights of fantasy on screen, and is a joy to watch.
The episodic nature of the film mean that the narrative pull is often slackened as O’Connell’s script (written with Peter Kline) runs a few situations into the ground, but notable exceptions include Binew’s plea to the public librarian to take the books he has authored, in particular the reading he gives on the steps is a perfect example of this strange skewed world.
While some of the jokes miss their mark, this is not a collection of gags in search of a laugh, it is all about immersing us in the final day of a man who seems to have stepped from the poems of Daniil Kharms, and either you’ll be hooked or you won’t. My advice is to give it a chance, there’s more invention here than you’ll see in most films with a hundred times the budget.
Don’t worry if the lead character bursts into song, or that you get left behind by the single-minded dialogue which takes no prisoners, instead you’ll find that, in the end and once the film is done, you knew all along what the point was.
