NR | 1h 48m | Drama, Biography, Anthology, Literature | 2024
A mix of a traditional biopic and literary anthology, director Ethan Hawke’s “Wildcat” delves into the life and writings of author Flannery O’Connor. Highly regarded in literary circles the world over, O’Connor continues to be especially revered in the Deep South, particularly in her home state of Georgia.
Adapted from a handful of O’Connor’s landmark short stories by Mr. Hawke and score composer Shelby Gaines, “Wildcat” stars Mr. Hawke’s daughter, Maya Hawke, as O’Connor, in a stunning, breakthrough, watershed performance.
Mother and Daughter
Most O’Connor devotees are already familiar with her life story, which is not to say they won’t also be wowed and enthralled with this portion of the movie. Ms. Hawke and Laura Linney as O’Connor’s emotionally distant mother Regina share a crackling, undeniable on-screen chemistry, which extends into the fictional elements of the movie where the two women play multiple characters from five of O’Connor’s short stories.
The treatment of “The Comforts of Home” opens the film as a fake two-minute, black and white movie trailer. It’s pure genius as the character played by Ms. Hawke (Star Drake) in this sequence is everything the reserved, dowdy, and conservative O’Connor was not: brazen, dangerous, alluring, and not all that bright.
This segment also includes Vincent D’Onofrio as a lawman arriving too late at a crime scene. A friend and past costar of Mr. Hawke, Mr. D’Onofrio is one of four actors, including Alessandro Nivola as a book editor, Steve Zahn as a grifter, and Liam Neeson as a priest, who show up in glorified cameos, roles none of them likely took for big paychecks. Also pulling similar duty as an escaped convict is Mr. Hawke’s son Levon.
Catholics and Hypocrites
A devout Catholic her entire life, O’Connor never lost her faith. The bulk of her work focused on those she came into contact with—those who lost their faith, or worse, put on holier-than-thou airs that belied their voiced intentions or opinions. Blatant hypocrites, they went to church and spoke of God’s graces and their own upstanding morality, while chastising anyone below their (imagined) social standing. A dream sequence scene featuring one of Ms. Linney’s abhorrently racist characters, and an apparition of Jesus is particularly telling.
In the “Good Country People” segment, Cooper Hoffman plays a door-to-door Bible salesman who, after failing to convince the mother, played by Ms. Linney, to make a purchase, almost succeeds (in more lecherous ways) to woo her handicapped daughter (Ms. Hawke).
In one of the movie’s most humorous exchanges, Mr. Hoffman’s character addresses Ms. Hawke’s writer character by commenting on her writing: “It must come easy for you.” Without missing a beat, she retorts, “It’s like giving birth to a piano, sideways.”
Another barbed quote has O’Connor saying, “I try to turn the other cheek, but my tongue is always in it.”
Although not spoken, this printed quote of O’Connor’s at the beginning sums up her attitude the best: “I’m always irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It’s actually a plunge into reality.”
Like far too many artists before her and others that have followed, O’Connor had the wherewithal and backbone to stick to her convictions, moral and otherwise. She was a woman of faith who called out those pretending to be the same.
Satire and Irony
I think of O’Conner’s use of satire and irony go far in pointing out how some people misinterpret God’s words and misdirect them to suit their own selfish reasoning and misguided morals.Admittedly, O’Connor and “Wildcat” are acquired tastes, and not for everyone. She examined and wrote about faith with a somewhat jaundiced and cynical eye, but it was never less than heartfelt and, whether some may like it or not, deadly accurate.
Mr. Hawke did the near impossible here. He and Mr. Gaines took a compendium of what many have previously declared to be O’Connor’s “unfilmable” stories, and given them new vibrant life, that those unfamiliar with O’Connor can relate to and hopefully appreciate, if not entirely love.
It’s a superb springboard into the mindset of one of America’s most gifted and idiosyncratic writers.
