Looking to stretch himself again after Nightcrawler, Southpaw and the upcoming Everest, Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition finds Jake Gyllenhaal back in contemplative mode, but with a twist. Have a look at the first trailer.
Demolition focuses on investment banker Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal), who falls into an emotional disconnect after his wife Julia (Heather Lind) dies after a car crash. Under pressure from his father-in-law Phil (Chris Cooper) to pull things together, he begins to realise that things had been going badly for some time; he’d just been so into his routine that he didn’t pay attention.
The first inkling that he can switch things up comes even in the hospital, as a malfunctioning vending machine sends Davis into a rage, spurring letters to the company behind the money-eating metal monstrosity. That helps form a connection with customer service rep Karen (Naomi Watts) and by extension her son Chris (Judah Lewis), going through emotional and financial struggles of their own.
As Davis becomes more and more obsessed with the idea of tearing things down to find out how they work and how to fix them, he discovers that he might just be able to figure himself out for once. The film, written by Bryan Sipe, also features Wass Stevens, Polly Draper and Brendan Dooling. It’ll premiere at the Toronto Film Festival before hitting US screens on April 8 next year. There’s no word on a UK date just yet.