Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Wander Darkly Blu-ray Movie Review

What Nightmares May Come.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 22, 2021

What Dreams May Come attempted to paint a picture (in more ways than one, if you've seen the film) of what the so-called "afterlife" might be like, at least for the focal character played by Robin Williams. In that regard, though, the audience knew that the Williams character had indeed died, and was going through some sort of personal Purgatory on his way to — well, somewhere. Wander Darkly attempts to do something at least somewhat similar, except in this case writer and director Tara Miele wants to keep her cards more or less glued to her chest, refusing to explicitly detail what exactly is going on with married couple Adrienne (Sienna Miller) and Matteo (Diego Luna) after a horrifying car accident. According to the making of featurette included on this Blu-ray disc as a supplement, Miele based the film on a real life incident she experienced where after a devastating auto collision she was temporarily blinded and could only hear her husband gasping that he couldn't breathe. That of course would be enough to provoke nightmares instead of dreams in many, maybe most, people, but Miele attempts to "develop" that foundational experience of hers into a dissection of a relationship and a kind of elegiac retrospective that is obviously hinting at questions of mortality and how that certain finality puts a new "spin" on things.

Anyone who has been married for any length of time will probably be more than happy to share that it isn't always easy, even when things seem to be moving into "happily ever after" territory. In that regard, while Adrienne and Matteo are blessed with the arrival of a beautiful new baby, there are warning signs on the horizon, with Adrienne not entirely satisfied with things, and with Matteo perhaps withdrawing a bit as a result. Despite the pressures of dealing with a newborn, they manage to finagle a rare "date night" out, where unfortunately tempers rise during a drive, with the argument suddenly interrupted by a calamitous car crash. Miele purposefully distorts the result of the fracas, offering skewed framings, hallucinatory imagery (and sound design), and an overall feeling of confusion and panic, before at least alluding to the fact that Adrienne has not survived the collision and is in fact a kind of spectral spirit viewing the aftermath of the tragedy. Except — is that really what’s going on?.

While initially seeming to be a document of Adrienne's afterlife journey, doubts begin to linger, especially after Matteo starts interacting with what Adrienne assumes is her own "spirit". Cutaways seem to suggest that Adrienne is in fact still alive, but, again, Miele is in no hurry to reveal what the truth is, and in fact a number of different hypotheses are either overtly offered or at least subliminally suggested, including that Matteo is also dead, or that Adrienne is "simply" experiencing a pretty serious bout of post traumatic stress disorder and is having a hard time differentiating between "real life" and an overheated, fraught imagination being roiled by an unsettled psyche.

What ensues is a "two hander" where Adrienne and Matteo "revisit" various moments from their past, trying to come to some sort of better understanding about how they have both succeeded and potentially failed as a couple. This part of the film has several intriguing vignettes, but the underlying mystery of who (if anyone) is "not quite dead yet" (so to speak) may be drawn out too lengthily to maintain the film's central conceit. While the general disconcertment of Adrienne means that Miller basically walks around looking dazed and confused for large swaths of the film, that's actually one of Wander Darkly's better attributes. The film is a reeling, spinning assortment of weird visions and sounds, and as a result you're never quite sure of what's "real" and what's going on. If the denouement is almost comically sanguine given what the events turn out to have been, it at least affords the film a moment or two of peace into what is otherwise often pure chaos.

Note: My colleague Brain Orndorf was a bit less enthused about the film than even I am. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Wander Darkly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wander Darkly is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexa Minis and a 2K DI as relevant data points. This is one of those exercises in "style" where any number of deliberate choices can tend to make the imagery inchoate, fuzzy, and even out of focus at times. As a result fine detail levels can spike and then falter, and even the palette can ebb and flow, though perhaps to less immediate and obvious effect. In relatively more "normal" moments, detail levels are frequently very appealing, and grading and lighting choices support a naturalistic ambience. A lot of the imagery, though, is intentionally skewed in any number of ways, including uses of different lenses, pushed contrast, and near Impressionistic flashes of light and the like that give the presentation an admittedly dreamlike atmosphere, but one that may not simultaneously provide consistently excellent clarity and detail.

Wander Darkly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I was actually perhaps more taken with Wander Darkly's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track than I was with the generally excellent video side of things. The sound design has been assembled rather artfully to feature a lot of near hallucinatory effects, including voices and ambient environmental effects kind of washing through the side and rear channels and providing an off kilter listening experience, at least at times. A wide variety of outdoor sequences also offers good placement of ambient sounds. The string drenched score also is nicely spacious almost all of the time. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track. Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available.

Wander Darkly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer / Director Tara Miele


• Narrative Therapy: Remembering Wander Darkly (1080p; 15:45) features some interesting comments from Miele and what looks like a predominantly female crew.

Wander Darkly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Wander Darkly can frankly be a rather intriguing, near hallucinatory, viewing experience, but there's only so much stumbling through memory that many viewers will be able to take before they'll be wanting a clearer explanation of what exactly is actually going on. It's understandable why Miele structured the film this way, as the mystery at least provides a reason to keep watching, but in some ways Wander Darkly is one of those who, to purloin a phrase and twist it slightly, is one who wanders and who is lost. Technical merits, especially audio, are generally excellent for those who are considering a purchase.