Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot | Little White Lies

Don’t Wor­ry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot

24 Oct 2018 / Released: 26 Oct 2018

Words by Hannah Strong

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jonah Hill, and Rooney Mara

Two people, one in a wheelchair and one seated, conversing on a porch with bookshelves in the background.
Two people, one in a wheelchair and one seated, conversing on a porch with bookshelves in the background.
2

Anticipation.

Gus Van Sant has been patchy recently and this looks saccharine.

3

Enjoyment.

Phoenix and Hill are great, though it’s all a bit warm and fuzzy.

3

In Retrospect.

Still searching for the old Van Sant magic.

Gus Van Sant reunites with Joaquin Phoenix for an odd­ball com­e­dy-dra­ma about dis­abil­i­ty and addiction.

Gus Van Sant has had a rough decade. In 2008 he was fly­ing on the suc­cess of Milk, but his efforts since haven’t inspired quite the same rev­er­ence. When The Sea of Trees pre­miered at Cannes in 2015 it was met with the reac­tion that strikes fear into the hearts of many a sea­soned direc­tor – loud boo­ing. Three years lat­er, he’s undoubt­ed­ly hop­ing for a more pos­i­tive response to Don’t Wor­ry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot.

Orig­i­nal­ly con­ceived as a project by Van Sant’s close friend Robin Williams, fol­low­ing his death Van Sant decid­ed to con­tin­ue with the film, speak­ing to sub­ject John Calla­han in a series of inter­views before he passed away in 2010. Maybe death haunts the film – cer­tain­ly it comes up as a theme time and time again. Some­times the reflec­tion is poignant, some­times it’s as sub­tle as a sledgehammer.

Adapt­ed from Callahan’s mem­oir of the same name, the film cov­ers his life from his acci­dent at the age of 21 to his sobri­ety which began at the age of 27. It’s a strange choice on Van Sant’s part then to cast 43-year-old Phoenix in the role, with a naff red wig and a pair of over­sized glass­es. Even so, Phoenix’s gift is his sub­tle­ty, even in a role like this where he plays a larg­er-than-life char­ac­ter. There’s a sense of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty about Calla­han which he man­ages to con­vey despite the script’s curi­ous lack of back­sto­ry, which omits impor­tant details and presents char­ac­ters with­out any context.

A woman wearing a colourful floral print shirt stands in a park setting with trees in the background.

Worth men­tion­ing too is the sur­pris­ing per­for­mance Jon­ah Hill puts in as Don­nie, Callahan’s Alco­holics Anony­mous spon­sor. Some­thing of a qua­si-Jesus fig­ure, he’s soft-spo­ken and wise beyond his years, with Hill giv­ing a very dif­fer­ent per­for­mance from any we’ve seen before – in a late scene he’s par­tic­u­lar­ly bril­liant, as Donnie’s care­ful façade of unflap­pable calm begins to fal­ter. There’s also a small but strong per­for­mance from singer Beth Dit­to, cast as Reba, a fel­low AA mem­ber and friend of Callahan’s, who’s unrecog­nis­able in her act­ing debut. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Rooney Mara – in her third project with Joaquin fol­low­ing Her and Mary Mag­da­lene – is more jar­ring as Callahan’s nurse-cum-girl­friend, Annu.

Yet Van Sant’s attempts to tack­le taboo ques­tions of dis­abled sex­u­al­i­ty and dis­abil­i­ty dis­crim­i­na­tion are well-pitched. It’s refresh­ing to see a film that presents the sex life of a dis­abled per­son in such a mat­ter-of-fact way, and Van Sant doesn’t shy away from grap­pling with the messier aspects of Callahan’s post-acci­dent exis­tence. When Car­rie Brownstein’s dis­abil­i­ty asses­sor crit­i­cis­es Calla­han for using his wheel­chair more than oth­er dis­abled peo­ple, he frus­trat­ed­ly cries, It’s because I have an active life!” It’s also great to see the real Callahan’s car­toons inter­wo­ven with the nar­ra­tive through ani­ma­tion, even if Phoenix’s voice-over feels a lit­tle unnec­es­sary and cheesy.

It’s obvi­ous that Calla­han was a deeply trou­bled and deeply fas­ci­nat­ing fig­ure, and Van Sant leans heav­i­ly into his subject’s own mythol­o­gy, mean­ing you’re nev­er entire­ly sure what’s fact or fic­tion. Even so, one can’t help but feel something’s miss­ing. There’s no explo­ration of why Calla­han turned to draw­ing car­toons fol­low­ing his acci­dent, and the only rea­son giv­en for the alco­holism which leads to his dis­abil­i­ty is the aban­don­ment he suf­fered as a child, which leaves out the impor­tant detail that the real Calla­han began drink­ing at the age of 12 after being abused.

In his deci­sion to focus sole­ly on Callahan’s quote-unquote inspi­ra­tional recov­ery, Van Sant often strays into mawk­ish ter­ri­to­ry, which isn’t helped by Dan­ny Elfman’s tin­kly score. There’s an earnest­ness to the film which ren­ders it more of a suc­cess than the director’s last three projects, but it feels like a curi­ous­ly sani­tised por­trait of a fas­ci­nat­ing, deeply-trou­bled artist, even with a strong ensem­ble cast.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.