Few films celebrate parenting. There’s a good reason for this. Although parenting is an extremely common human experience, it rarely involves stuntmen. And heroic parenting is basic parenting. It’s like a dramatic court case — if you need to be a hero parent, just like if you need that key piece of evidence -stat!- odds are you’ve screwed up already.
Speaking of screw ups, Aidan Bloom (Zach Braff) is an unemployed actor and father of two. He’s lost. His voice over explains how he always wanted to be a hero, but has given up, “maybe we’re just the guys who get saved.” Yup, most of us are. When his father (Mandy Patenkin) cuts off school funds for the children in favor of trying to cheat death, it doesn’t get better. In the same fell swoop, Zach also has to accept his father’s dog. No money. No job. No school. Father dying. And I have to take his dog, too. “So much bad news at once,” he complains.
He does have two things going for him: his wife Sarah (Kate Hudson) has a paying job. It sucks, and her cube mate enjoys talking about his half-boners, but … well, no, unwanted sexual attention makes any job a pile of crap; no buts about it. Also, his brother (Josh Gad) is screw-up, too, proudly spending 90% of his life preparing for Comicon cosplay out of his beach trailer home.
Don’t get me wrong here — when you have a life, a Comicon fetish can describe a wonderful spark in a personality. When Comicon is your life, well, I’m guessing … less.
Wish I Was Here poses as a slice-of-life film: The daily comic/tragic adventures of a man in minor crisis. I’m sure it will be criticized on that score as plotless or passive. For me, it was much more — a true study of character growth and all within a context of haze, much like we experience every day. Sometimes when 
you watch a film, you get the idea that the hero has a crystal ball; he sees the finish line clearer than we do and we just have to accept this. Aiden has no crystal ball. He swears. He lets the children swear. His home school is a fail. Sarah comes home to children duct taped to chairs. Aiden’s attempt at tuition relief is a fail. His casting coup finds him auditioning for a part calling for a black man. And, yet, through it all, his wife stands by him. Oh, she knows he screwed up; she knows he screws up; but this movie doesn’t need a pre-divorce scene. Life isn’t always like that.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from 16 solid years of parenting it’s that as long as you care, you will always get another chance to make up for a parenting fail. A movie is two hours long and so it has to be shown in key moments. e.g. Here it is! This is when my father decided I wasn’t as good as my brother, etc. etc. Wish I Was Here loves to wed the tragic to the comic, and in doing so, has a much greater understanding of true parenting. Rarely are there just “wins” or “losses.” There’s more. There’s depth to almost all parental interaction. And being present and caring makes up for an awful lot of duct tape.
Parenting can come down to tact or
Paying attention can be a factor
Yeah, it’s cheesier
But quite a bit easier
If you’re not an unemployed actor
Rated R, 106 Minutes
D: Zach Braff
W: Adam J. Braff, Zach Braff
Genre: Please, please do better
Person most likely to enjoy this film: Screw-up parents
Person least likely to enjoy the film: Military-minded grandparents
