Wildcat focuses on the early life of Mary Flannery O’Connor, a novelist who incorporates the Southern Gothic style into her work and to whom she was able to express her creativity through vivid writings. Her sincerity was unfathomable as she struggled to balance her creations with her Catholic beliefs while being a victim of nerve-wasting disease of lupus. It was co-written and directed by Ethan Hawke, who had her daughter Maya star in the film, while many more came together to create a clouding effect that mistook vague art for deep substance. The slow, surreal on-screen action of multiple cast members featuring different characters one after the other mixing up all the ambiguity was ‘The absolute disintegration of the narrative’ technique. However much is done, ‘all partially interconnected wars’ can only be seen at great length, and sadly, very few details remain.
The film begins with a charnel house O’Connor in the form of Maya playinga short story – Hawke opens Wildcat with one of those movie trailers in black and white… and tell. This is the first taste of O’Connor (Maya Hawke) that uses herself and her mother Regina (Laura Linney) as characters in horrific sexual, racial and religious representations, which can be noted as the primary aspects of her writing. Between the synecdoche of O’Connor’s themes, which always come first, the O’Connor voiceover with typewriter typing describing the action overwrites her inspiration of people or things.
The card that depicts O’Connor sets the year to 1950 but in New York City. Then suddenly, she feels frustration from the would-be publisher Alessandro Nivola. Her sparely filling manuscript makes viewer engagement too low. He thinks she has got to do these things intentionally to mess with her using ugliest elements. While calling upon the Father’s name, O’Connor however, knows that she cannot live in New York and write there because of economic reasons. But before that, Pulitzer prize winner poet Cal lowell comes to the platform to say goodbye after which they take different paths. She loves him but still feels that he is nothing more than a friend.
Raised in the South, O’Connor took a deplorable disliking to a great deal of traditional Southern elements. In fiction, she makes a laughable mockery of her mother as a character, but in actual reality, she is dependent completely on Regina’s nurturing. The always amazing Linney, who plays six characters including Regina, also helps to keep her teenage daughter grounded. She wonders why O’Connor does not deal with themes similar to those in Gone With the Wind. But she never puts a restraining hand on what pleases her baby. The complex relationship that Flannery shares with her mother is perhaps the back bone of this movie and the reason why it advances in such a manner. The script by Ethan Hawke touches upon this aspect but does not do justice in terms of spending adequate time in the world where these characters belong.
The Wildcat idea is that O’Connor was able to escape from sheer frustration and distress both emotional as well as physical through the workings of her mind. Each of her thoughts has a very short film adaptation which subsequently turns into the book that she would later be remembered for. The execution is the tough part, especially the approach employed. These demands subvert the narrative to an extent that leans on the excessive end. It becomes a wheeling spindle which exhausts oneself incessantly. In such cases, Ethan Hawke was supposed to assert himself and provide proper background information. Thus, there is too much of illusionary sequences and they are purposeless in their own right; if they are attractive to fans of literature, so be it.
This point of view has an impact as well on the production aspects of this project. The film looks pretty decent though it still lacks restraint nonetheless.The lighting is inconsistent, some frames seem to stand still for no valid reason in long takes, and a billowing smoke FX scene that’s honestly perplexing. This excessive display is supposed to serve as a visual counter to the sheer desolation that is O’Connor’s life. This somehow feels like Ethan Hawke wants every single one of his directorial works to be featured on this one screen.
Maya Hawke does great job as O’Connor and her alter egos.Wildcat will undoubtedly get nepotism slapped on it.Still, being labelled as an apologia or even abuse would be unfair. Hawke has shown that she can switch between roles easily and quite convincingly; she appeared in Asteroid City where she showed suttle whimsicality or in Stranger Things where everything was much more mainstream. She has chemistry with Linney. The sense of compassion comes in as lupus infiltrates every pore of O’Connor’s spirit. Yes, another actress could have played the part. However, there is nothing wrong with her performance.
O’Connor has proved to be quite the character in herself, a relative late-bloomer who found her true calling despite battling the auto-immune condition lupus diagnosed to her at the age of 36, having only 2 years left in her life. A film such as Wildcat will have many talented cast and crew members joining together in pursuing a similar goal. Based on the accounts of the individuals who created this film, one can tell that the project was close to their hearts, and they involved all the essentials in bringing out this film. Rather, it requires a more balanced inclusion of the fantasy elements, without them dominating the running time of the film. This, of course, would have avoided the drawn out presentation, and increased the overall impact of the conflict.
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