The Living Wake 4 stars
Mike O’Connell, Jesse Eisenberg, Ann Dowd, Eddie Pepitone, Jim Gaffigan
Directed by Sol Tyron
What is the meaning of life? Is it finding love? Leaving one’s mark in the world? Or is it mining humor from ham steaks, rickshaws, linoleum backyards and blood-thirsty badgers?
According to The Living Wake, it’s a whimsical combination thereof. Combining O Brother, Where Art Thou?’s self-parody, Monty Python and the Holy Grail’s absurdism and the over-the-top dialogue of both, Wake begins with a faux newsreel on the life of eccentric artist and author K. Roth Binew (O’Connell). On the day of his prophesied death (a vague and unnamed yet particularly vicious malady is to blame), Binew sets out with his acolyte Mills (Eisenberg) to make amends with various parties, take a final stab at leaving his mark in the world, bang a prostitute and most importantly, seek the elusive, final wisdom his late father (Gaffigan) never got around to delivering.
What follows is a highly quotable (“Flex your muscle and abuse your power!”; “…and never have Ricketts been more erotic.”) cult-classic-in-the-making. With musical interludes. In fact, we all might as well start referring to it as Monty Python and the Modern-Day Quest for a “Brief But Powerful Monologue.”
The humor comes fast and ends up hit-or-miss, but when it does hit, it hits hard. Anti-censorship satire and references to Greek mythology, the Pennsylvania Dutch and Viking funerals pervade, and a fittingly ambiguous ending avoids the trap most intelligent comedies fall into: that of a tidy, dumbed-down ending. Most interestingly, the script is rooted in a stage persona of O’Connell’s, but the comedian hands off the emotional heft to Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale), whose devoted poet/Binew biographer gravitates from matter-of-fact stoic to defeated mourner.
Wake may appear superficial upon first glance, but its scope quickly deepens. Most among us, the film accuses, cannot dare to be different. In lieu of leaving a mark, the cop-out is to occupy one’s time with romance, family, religion or alcohol. Both Binew and Wake aspire to much more.