Just saw this at Annapolis Film Festival and want to watch again immediately. This intelligent, witty, and pitch-perfect character study follows Wanda (Edie Falco), a woman who will drop everything to help out a family member... And lately, they just all seem to need way too much help. The title, "I'll Be Right There" perfectly sums up her character. Impressively, the film does not seek to reduce this type of person, and we all know someone like this, or ARE this person.
This film will give you a lot to reflect on, no matter where you fall on the scale of being a 'Giver' (If you're a 10, chances are you're not only neglecting yourself but also enabling bad behavior and making other people more dependent on you... If you're a 1, chances are you are so afraid of getting used that your relationships suffer).
This is a movie for adults, putting this question of "How much helping is too much?" at center stage. Edie Falco makes you feel the exhaustion and the worry, and keeps the audience from judging her choices, which constantly surprise. She is not an idea. Her character has layers of specificity and many sides that aren't apparent right from the start. This kind of storytelling is a delicate soufflé - and it flies in the face of a lot of pressure for screenwriters to amp up conflict and and give the audience big emotional signposts.
Based on reading the summary, I was expecting a different kind of film, one that had an agenda to criticize this kind of helicopter parenting and the way it can yield floundering, helpless adult children.
This is certainly a subtext of the story - How does Wanda's enabling behavior affect those around her? But Jim Beggarly's script in the hands of director Brendan Walsh has so much more on it's mind.
There were times early on where I felt resltess - "Where is this movie going?" A few scenes, including an amazing monologue by Jeannie Berlin as Wanda's mother, seem take their time and don't have a clear impact on the scenes that follow. By the end, it's clear that every lived-in moment, all the random details of Wanda's chaotic week, have created a tapestry so rich that it invites true reflection of very adult problems that we often never vocalize to people around us, even though they are central to our daily ups and downs.
I can imagine some people having life-changing conversations if they were to watch this movie with a sibling, a parent, or their own adult children.
Truly sublime filmmaking. It doesn't announce itself as important, or push buttons to get your emotions flowing. I hope it finds a devoted fans regardless. I count myself as one.
