Transitioning nicely from his role as a juiced-up widower in Southpaw, Jake Gyllenhaal’s next starring role sees him as similarly buff widower in Demolition, only this time he’s wearing suits and has a sweet tooth. The trailer kicks off with his character calmly penning a letter to a vending machine company whose damned malfunctioning unit has deprived him of some Peanut M&M’s. “I found this upsetting,” he writes, Gyllenhaal’s soothing voice narrating the thoughts. “As I was very hungry, and also my wife had died ten minutes earlier.”
Davis, as he’s named, is just a white collar dude who wakes up at 5:30 a.m. every morning, carries a suitcase to work, is resented by his father-in-law (Chris Cooper), and wonders what the hell he’s doing with his life. In other words, your average white, upper-class American male, but objectively more attractive. His wife’s death forces Davis to pull his life apart as he searches for meaning and continues writing intensely personal letters to a vending machine company. Naomi Watts plays a customer service rep at said company who inevitably gets herself and her son tied up in this man’s metaphorical longing for Peanut M&M’s. The film doesn’t hit theaters until April 6, 2016, but there’s plenty of Gyllenhaal looking manly in Everest to hold you over until then.
