A Wish for Giants

When people tell me they’ve got a bigfoot movie for me, I wince a bit.  Maybe it’s the vicarious PTSD from when The Cinema Snob went through a week of sasquatch-related hell back in 2014; maybe it’s all of the terrible bigfoot-hunting or -sighting TV shows I’ve had to sit through over the years, all delivering exactly nothing but hearsay and conjecture; or maybe it’s because the best depiction of the large mammal has come courtesy of Harry and the Hendersons.  Who knows, really?

This one, though, certainly lived up to its billing as being not your average/usual bigfoot flick.

Based on the 2015 novel by Aaron Dunbar (who adapts his own work for the screen here), A Wish for Giants centers on young Roxie Madison, who collapses one day on the school playground; turns out, she’s got a brain tumor.  In her own words: “That sucks.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself.  While she undergoes treatment, she enters a wish into the film universe’s version of the Make-a-Wish Foundation: she wants to meet a real-life sasquatch.  Sophie, a grad student working for the charity, is tasked with bringing this seemingly unattainable dream to fruition, while also dealing with the advances and unwelcome “aid” of her classmate, Derrick, the spoiled son of a senator, who’s only out to make himself famous.

On the surface, the story is actually pretty interesting and potentially even touching: a little girl wishes for something basically impossible, and those around her endeavor to make it come true.  If used as a parable or fable, it could really work, extolling the virtues of positivity, dedication/sticktoitiveness, compassion, even faith, all in the face of adversity and the allure of the easy way out.  And, honestly, with a little bit of polish, this film could achieve just that.

As is, though, things don’t exactly come together properly.  Dunbar’s script, though laden with potential, gets bogged down in unnecessary threads, especially the one focusing on Derrick and his selfish machinations.  Derrick is not only an obnoxious, overconfident douchenozzle, but he’s also nearly irrelevant to the main plot.  Most of his interactions with Sophie involve him pitching an idea to her, one that clearly only really benefits him, and her turning him down.  At one point, she mostly gives in, but that doesn’t amount to anything, either, save a fake-out for the ending’s reveal.  Thing is, a lot of time is dedicated to showing his behind-the-scenes duplicity, as he hires a hacker to track Sophie’s technological footprints, hires a private investigator to look into her background and set up other meetings, and attempt to horn in on the glory (whatever glory there is to be had, anyway) of uniting an ailing girl with a cryptozoological creature, all while falling short of actually tenting his fingers in gleefully evil anticipation.  Meanwhile, this time could have been better spent further developing the burgeoning relationship between Sophie and Roxie and showing just how daunting and taxing the task of fulfilling Roxie’s wish really is for Sophie.  You know, emphasizing the baked-in and essential human drama of the situation.  Credit to Connor McClain’s performance, though, as he really sells his character’s asshattery (verging on asshaberdashery), twitchy mouth, neck beard, and all.

The rest of the acting sits on a spectrum from mostly wooden (looking at you, child actors (yeah, I know, I’m a jerk)) to pretty hammy (not gonna lie, McClain fits right in here), though most of the adult actors lie somewhere in the middle, with an air of discomfort with their roles or lines, for lack of a better word.  While Naysa Altmeyer makes us believe in Sophie’s dedication and passion for her work and Alexa Mechling walks that line between downtrodden and hopeful as Roxie, the rest of the cast feels as though they are reading their lines from cue cards, very little natural feelings to be found.  Some of the blame for this lies with the actors themselves, but a good portion rests on the script’s shoulders, as well.

Director Don Swanson, who also serves as the film’s DP and editor, does little to help things with his camera and direction, mostly keeping things static and uninteresting, but some dynamic shots can be found: a dialogue spin, some neat transitional montages, an underwater establishing shot (sort of), and some nice nature shots punctuate an otherwise drab presentation, one that even ruins one of those nature shots by employing a painfully obvious day-for-night effect on it.  The score, though hitting the right emotional notes throughout, is often a bit overbearing and overwrought, and occasionally sits too highly in the mix, competing with and working to drown out some of the dialogue.  I dug the proper use of the term “squatching” (if I learned nothing else from those hours of watching garbage shows on the History Channel and others…), I learned there is an Indiana University of Pennsylvania (like the similarly geographically-confusing Miami University of Ohio, it’s named for local geography), I think the former Alex Jowski covered the bigfoot movie Roxie watches in the hospital on Antisocial Commentary, and I absolutely dug a little exchange in a classroom scene: a student brags about a recent sexual conquest, gets the requisite high-five from a buddy sitting behind him, and then said buddy goes right back to sleeping at his seat.  Classic.

Considering the decidedly minuscule budget of $25,000, the film looks relatively good, and the core story has its charms, but the needless antagonist subplot and hurried pace – especially near the beginning – take quite a bit of enjoyment away from the experience.  Like I said, with a bit of polish, this could actually be pretty damn solid, but as it stands now, it’s a bit of a convoluted mess.  I applaud the writer/author for his financing efforts and charitable work derived from the sales of the book, and there was clearly a lot of effort and heart put into this film, but it just doesn’t quite land for me.  If the story sounds interesting to you, give it a go, but I can’t put much weight behind it, personally.  Still, it’s got better aspects of production than Best F(r)iends, so it’s got that going for it, at least.