Wish I Was Here - Not Worth the Wait

For months I've been waiting for my chance to watch the result of Zach Braff's Kickstarter campaign. It's been over three months since I was supposed to have watched "Wish I Was Here", but due to a lack of looking into the legality of things and selling rights they had no business selling, it's taken this long for me to get a screener. It premiered at US cinemas almost three months ago and the film isn't even in theatres there any more. So much for getting to watch the film before general release.

There's been a lot of trouble around the production of this film, but I'll try to keep the problems around the film, and the film itself as separate as possible. But some aspects of the production and distribution just is going to cloud my view. That's the way it is. One of the biggest drawbacks was just how bad the streaming service was for me. I've never had any problem streaming anything before, but the service they showed "Wish I Was Here" through kept hiccuping and jumping. I almost watched the film twice because it kept going back several seconds while it loaded the next segment. The worst part about the streaming, however, is the fact that it was the same provider as it was three months ago. That means there were no legal problem on their end, it was purely with Zach Braff and co. They didn't straighten out the legalities so that their backers could actually get their rewards. Kickstarter 101, Zach, don't promise what you haven't even researched. But now, the film itself.

Honestly, I still had some hopes for this film after all that time waiting. I've liked a lot of things Zach Braff has previously acted in, and I enjoyed his directional debut "Garden State". He seemed really passionate about this film, and seeing how he actually got quite a few big names for it I figured 30 USD wasn't too bad for an online screening of the film. Especially considering they weren't giving away any home releases of the film as perks. How wrong I was.

The film tries way too hard to be sentimental and meaningful. Not a word is spoken that sounds genuine and natural. It all feels like it's constructed to be a certain feeling to such a minute detail that every detail is an eyesore. You can see exactly what they tried to achieve with everything, but it fails because you noticed every single thing. None of it works together as a whole, it just ends up being a collection of tropes and instruments, a visual warehouse of Zach Braff's favourite feelings.

There is some decent acting in this film, even through the awful dialog. There are moments when you almost feel for the characters, but they are brief, quickly replaced with yet another moment that just doesn't work. Braff apparently still needs to practise his directing abilities, or at least hone them. I fear that the actors might be doing exactly what Zach wanted, but none of it works, he needs to figure out what exactly it is that makes a film good. What it is that makes a performance special. Either that or he needs to completely reconsider his choice in genre, because he can't handle this right now.

Overall this film just isn't worth your time, at all. There are plenty of films out there that will better suit your needs in this genre, and there aren't any other reasons to watch it either. It isn't technically good, it isn't artistically good, it isn't narratively good, it just isn't good. The one semi-reason to watch this is to see what happens when you give a semi-famous indy director with a dream a ton of money in advanced. You get a man who can do what he wants, and have better control over his creation. The problem is that Zach really need those people who stand over him and tells him what doesn't work. He needs to be guided, he isn't strong enough of a film maker to take on a project like this, however small it might be.