PARK CITY – Melanie Lynskey has been an indie film darling since she first made a global impression in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures” over 22 years ago. She’s played all sorts of roles, but she’s never pulled off anything close to the performance she gives in Macon Blair’s bizarre, twist-filled dark comedy “I Don’t Feel At Home In The World Anymore” which was one of four films to open the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Thursday night.
To explain a significant number of the plot details of ‘I Don’t Feel’ would truly spoil the unexpected shocks that Blair has in store in his feature film debut. What you do need to know is that Lynskey plays Ruth, an assistant nurse at a recovery facility somewhere in the Pacific Northwest (actually, the location is never given but the film was shot in Oregon). Ruth is in an obvious rut in her life. She seems passively indifferent to her job and spends her time alone or bugging her seemingly only friend Angie (Lee Eddy) (much to Angie’s husband’s dismay). One afternoon she discovers her home’s been vandalized and her computer and grandmother’s silver have been stolen. The police arrive and open up an investigation, but she soon learns that unless any of the stolen goods pop up, the authorities won’t do much. When someone turns her computer on she gets a notification on her locator app of where it is, but the police refuse to visit the location without a search warrant. Beyond frustrated and upset with people not doing the “right” thing, Ruth snaps and decides to take matters into her own hands. Enter Ruth’s neighbor Tony played by Elijah Wood.
Tony is a strange one. He thinks he’s a martial arts expert and he likes Big Red and cheese slices. He’s awkward with a capital “A,” but despite a rough initial meeting, Ruth recruits him to assist her investigation into what happened to her stuff (news flash: she has no idea what she’s doing). Wood is committed to the role despite Blair giving us little reason to understand why Tony’s so odd in the first place. All we know is that he has a strong moral compass for what’s right and wrong and Ruth has clearly been “wronged.” Wood does his best, but Blair missed something here.
As the film progresses Tony and Ruth run into one colorful character after another including Devon Graye as a spoiled rich kid gone very wrong, David Yow as a disgustingly slimy criminal and Jane Levy as Yow’s cohort in a “don’t blink you won’t even realize she’s there” role. And Christine Woods takes the increasingly familiar caricature of a southern-born housewife stuck in her gorgeous mansion bored out of her mind and somehow finds a hilarious new spin on it.
Granted, what Blair is trying to do is quite ambitious for his first feature. He alternates moments of high comedy with serious tension and a touch of magic realism for kicks. For the most part, the tone works. Blair has starred in every movie by his childhood friend Jeremy Saulnier (most notably leading “Blue Ruin,” and co-starring in “Green Room“) and there are hints of those films in ‘I Don’t Feel Alone,’ but this feels like a different creative tangent. It’s partly Blair’s vision along with the story structure, but Lynskey’s unique aura is also a big part of it.
What Lynskey does with Ruth is sort of amazing. By the end of the picture Ruth is nothing like she was when we first met her. She’s been through both an emotional and physical trial, and yet, despite all the incredible things that happen to her, Lynskey keeps Ruth so grounded you want to believe it. When actors gush over other actors pulling off a difficult character arc, this is the sort of performance they are talking about.
Unfortunately, not everything works out as well as Blair intended. Things starts off much too slowly in the first half, and some of the weird jokes or character bits just seem weird just to be weird as opposed to inherently original. The romantic relationship between Ruth and Tony also doesn’t resonate as much as it should and when you feel anything it’s only because Lynskey somehow wills it on screen. And while it may make sense for Ruth’s character, things get wrapped up a bit too neatly at the end.
Where ‘I Don’t Feel’ hooks you in is when you realize you have no idea where it’s going because it continues to cross lines you never thought it would cross. Moreover, flaws aside, there are very few veteran filmmakers who can pull that trick off more than once in a movie let alone three or four times. That’s noteworthy in and of itself and pretty entertaining.
Oh, and then there’s Lynskey of course. If we hadn’t made that abundantly clear already. [B]
Click here for our complete coverage from the 2017 Sundance Film Festival
