After losing his farm to a wildfire, a man reconnects with his estranged daughter while staying at a trailer park.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Max Walker-Silverman
Starring: Josh O'Connor, Meghann Fahy, Lily LaTorre, Kali Reis, Amy Madigan
Writer/director Max Walker-Silverman's feature debut A Love Song saw Dale Dickey play an elderly woman rediscovering what it means to be alive while staying in a caravan. His follow-up, Rebuilding, casts Josh O'Connor in a similar role, but the circumstances and conclusions are markedly different.
Dickey's protagonist found herself in a trailer by choice, taking a well-earned break in the scenic surrounds of Colorado. O'Connor's Dusty ends up in a Colorado caravan when he loses his farm in a devastating wildfire. The two characters are on opposing trajectories. In A Love Song, Dickey's retiree learned to love herself and embrace solitude, accepting that she could get by without others. Here, Dusty has spent most of his life avoiding human contact, preferring to surround himself with livestock, but in the aftermath of tragedy he discovers the importance of community.
When an entire town is destroyed by fire, Dusty is relocated by FEMA to a makeshift trailer park. There he is accompanied by other victims, most of whom have suffered far worse losses. He keeps to himself at first, but the survivors are corralled by the maternal Mali (Kali Reis), who lost her husband in the fire. Dusty finds a kinship with the sort of people he has long avoided.
The encampment happens to be close to the home of Dusty's ex-wife Ruby (Meghann Fahy) and their young daughter Callie Rose (Lily LaTorre). Dusty looks in on Ruby, who forces him to spend time with Callie Rose. Father and daughter reconnect, but Dusty is reluctant to get too close to a child whose life he may have to walk out on again in the near future.
As with his previous film, Walker-Silverman's latest is sparse on dialogue but heavy on silent tells. O'Connor's face has the look of a crumpled paper bag someone has attempted to smooth out, constantly putting on a brave face while dying inside. He's given only one moment that might be considered close to a speech, in which he talks about what he lost in the fire, but the actor's face suggests Dusty is really talking about something he lost long before that tragedy. Reis is similarly oak-like as a woman trying to stay strong for her daughter.
A more conventional movie may have attempted to fashion a budding romance between these two damaged people, but Walker-Silverman wisely recognises how crass that would be in these circumstances. Similarly, there is no suggestion of Dusty rekindling any passion with Ruby. It is a very recognisable and mature portrayal of divorced parents maintaining a cordial relationship, and in Fahy's performance we see her frustration with Dusty's inability to be there for those who have needed him. Fresh off her Oscar win for Weapons, Amy Madigan delivers a much more delicate turn as Ruby's mother. Young LaTorre is a revelation, and Walker-Silverman's preference for subtle actions over words works wonders for the child star, who can turn a scene on a dime by simply breaking out in a smile or turning her body away from an adult who has let her down.
There is a wonderful scene in which Callie Rose ignores her father and unloads the boxes of knick knacks he has kept sealed in his trailer. For Dusty, the trailer is a stopgap, but his precocious kid is wise enough to recognise it as a home, regardless of its impermanence. Over the course of 90 minutes, Dusty will come to understand that a home is more than merely brick and mortar on a favoured piece of land, but rather the place where you feel you belong. Like the early films of Chloe Zhao, the overwhelming landscape of the American West is employed here as a way of putting human drama into perspective. A final, simple dialogue exchange sums up both this backdrop and the film itself. This is a film that will make you want to sit on your porch and breath in the air.
Rebuilding is in UK/ROI cinemas from April 17th.
