“Jake Gyllenhaal gives his best performance since 'Brokeback Mountain' as a man who
refuses to mourn his wife's death.” Peter Debruge, Variety
Academy Award nominees Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts star in this headlong plunge into
the depths of human emotion from Dallas Buyers Club director JeanMarc Vallée. New York
investment banker Davis Mitchell (Gyllenhaal) is sleepwalking through a life of easy success
when a horrible car crash wakes him with a start. His lovely wife, Julia, is killed. Friends and
family gather round to console him, but Davis seems to feel nothing. Seemingly unfazed by his
loss yet preoccupied by his inability to retrieve a candy bar from a hospital vending machine,
Davis takes to writing absurdly protracted and increasingly confessional letters of complaint
to the Vending Machine Company. Those letters are answered by Karen (Watts), a mysterious,
eccentric Champion employee. Davis' letters somehow resonate with Karen. As Davis finds
himself undertaking a campaign of random acts of destruction, dismantling everything from
household appliances to an office washroom stall, he and Karen forge a strange and beautiful
alliance. Both put their own interests at risk but what they discover in the aftermath may prove
far more valuable.
Toronto International Film Festival