In an industry filled to the brim with toxic masculinity, not only in film, but the men running it, it’s nice to see a film centered on men that includes a depth and emotionality not seen in a very long time. Writer/Director Wade Wofford brings a film about friendship and the emotional connection between men, defying social “norms”, that is infused with long needed healing.
The Breakdown
Gavin (Christian Bester) is a poet and professor whose career is beginning to look up. He has recently published a book of poetry and it is creating enough buzz on the bookstore circuit that he is invited to read for an audience and do book signings. Married to his college sweetheart and the love of his life, Jessica (Justine Beirne), his life seems wide open.
At one of his book signings, he receives a text message that turns his world upside down. Jessica is killed in a tragic car accident. His younger brother Harry (Bjorn Gessle), rallies Gavin’s closest friends, Jase (Elan Even), Wesley (Jeff Stanley), and Alex (John Anthony Wylliams), from across the country, to come together for Gavin in his time of need.
Six months after the funeral, Gavin is still a mess. He drinks heavily, gets in trouble at his job and is unable to move forward one bit from Jessica’s death. Harry gets the idea to set up a trip for Gavin and their friends to camp and hike a Vermont mountain well known to them, hoping to get Gavin out of his house and his funk.
What the men don’t realize going into this trip is that this is going to be an emotional catharsis for all of them.
Wait, Men Have Feelings?
Though each of the men wants to support Gavin, all of them come into this trip carrying their own emotional baggage, so their reactions to Gavin and each other create tensions of their own. Through writing that has clearly taken a lot of time and personal investment, the characters are well defined and distinctive in their own ways. While this is the way screenplays are always supposed to be written, there is a massive lack of character development overall in mainstream films these days. This is just one of the many ways The Answer shines.
Alex is a jaded African American man who grew up in poverty in a rough neighborhood. He has worked his way to “the good life”, i.e. now lives in a good neighborhood, has a nice house and the “perfect” family. He struggles with heavy cynicism, resentment and homophobia, even though he has been friends with Wesley, who is gay, for over ten years. Wesley, who is water/germ phobic, brings his partner, Fareed (Neimah Djourabchi) with him to the mountain without thinking of asking his friends if it was ok to begin with. In close quarters, Alex will be forced to face his lingering homophobia and dissatisfaction with his family life.
Jase, a freestyling hippie, has huge problems sticking to anything in life. His wild, yet laid-back approach to life makes it all but impossible for him to keep a job in the mainstream world. His feral, caveman ways in the forest are the comic relief to the story and Jase is the men’s link to spirituality. He brings an introduction of the ethereal to the guys, even to the derisive Alex.
Harry, who’s always admired Gavin as his older brother, deals with his own inadequacies and feelings of rejection from Gavin stemming from childhood. He tries to be the “strong one” emotionally for Gavin but, in turn, ends up neglecting his own pain. There is palpable tension and resentment between Gavin and Harry right from the beginning, which leads to an inevitable reckoning in the forest.
Gavin, though rightfully crushed in losing his wife, struggles with a victim complex. He is unable to see past his own pain to appreciate all of the wonderful people and things that he does have. With phenomenal acting by Christian Bester, we are submerged into the emotional floodgates of a human experiencing the death of a loved one. Bester switches from despair, irritability, anger and bewilderment like a seasoned pro.
The “stew” created over the campfire of these eclectic personalities gives the viewer plenty to experience and be engaged in throughout.
Film Defying Stereotypes
One review simply can’t express all of the beauty this film has to offer. It’s no easy feat to write an intriguing film surrounding a group of men hiking, but Wofford knocks it out of the park on a shoestring budget.
This isn’t a toxic masculine, cis male tale of grunting, killing, misogyny and homophobia. It is, instead, real people struggling with real life. It is men who care for one another trying their damndest to support a friend with all of their imperfect, human lack. It is a challenge to the masculine status quo and offers a refreshing look into authentic men grappling against said status quo.
Coupled with marvelous nature cinematography by Jake Hulse, Wofford weaves an intricate, humanistic tale of believably real men. With his meticulous attention paid to the craft of character development, we get a more realistic view of male friendships and their barely seen emotions. Sticking with writing what he knows and the friendships he’s had, Wofford brings an authenticity that audiences are veritably starved of in mainstream. Even as a female, I have known facets of each character in real men in my life, therefore, I was able to sympathize with each of them to an extent that allowed me to be personally engrossed in the story.
This is also a film by a white, male filmmaker who is purposefully trying to bring diversity to his work. There are two gay men, one of Iranian descent, and they aren’t treated as people to scorn but as equals to the straight men, as it should be. In the white, male, heteronormative film world, this is all but unheard of. This allowed the gay characters to be their true selves and contribute to the group’s issues in their own helpful ways. Wofford is a filmmaker that is more interested in an encompassing human experience rather than a one-sided biopic.
Fareed, for example, isn’t just a token POC/LGBTQ character thrown in for good measure. He brings a host of sensitivity, wisdom and truth to the men not being authentic with themselves. In this way, Fareed becomes necessary, even though he has few lines. Without him, some of the characters couldn’t have had the realizations they needed to grow and move past their issues. Not making Fareed’s queerness or color forefront to the character’s own story also gives the audience a chance to see Fareed as the peaceful sage that he is and move past any stereotypical barriers that would detract from the overall story.
These kinds of, seemingly, small details are actually big things so desperately needed in mainstream film today.
The Answer: Conclusion
So what is the answer? We NEED more films like these. The kind that rejects the stale, tired, stereotypes that have infested our films and society for so many years. We need to see male characters interacting like this, setting aside societies wishes and being true to their real selves. We need more films that show men that true strength comes from within instead of without.
The Answer does more than address people experiencing death. Just like life, it dares to grip each of its flawed characters with circumstances beyond their comfort zone, strips them bare and forces the changes they need to move forward. It dares to show men, regardless of labels, interacting with real emotions, defying the stereotypes most films create. It shows men caring for, instead of destroying each other, which is important not just for men, but for all the little boys growing up in a world that desensitizes them and encourages violence over emotion.
It also proves that you don’t need well-known actors for a film to be great. Though many of the performances are spectacular and heartfelt, it is the writing, at the end of the day, that makes a film exceptional. It sets the story, gives the actors more depth to work with and creates the characters that audiences can see themselves in.
After all, what good is art if it’s not a passionate expression of real life?
The Answer is available now for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Itunes, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube. Find Links here: www.theanswerfilm.com
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