WANDER

US, 2020, 94 minutes, Colour.

Aaron Eckhart, Tommy Lee Jones, Katheryn Winnick, Heather Graham, Raymond Cruz, Brendan Fehr.

Directed by April Mullen.

Something of an oddball investigative drama.

The title refers to a remote town. Gradually it is revealed that scientific experiments are taking place, refugees being taken over, insertions in their chest, mind and behaviour control.

The central character, Arthur, is played with intensity by Aaron Eckhart. He has lost wife and daughter, distraught, living in a trailer. And he is prone to conspiracy theories. He comes across a woman dying suddenly and unexpectedly on the highway, appealed to by her mother to investigate. He runs a pod cast with an old friend, Tommy Lee Jones, discussing conspiracy theories.

The main part of the film shows the investigation and leads by Arthur, encounters with the local sheriff, with another investigator, contact with Tommy Lee Jones to get information, and with an old friend, played by Heather Graham, along with her FBI partner, Brendan Fehr.

And, there are several twists to come, the identity of the FBI investigators and Arthur himself as a target of the experiment.

1. The title, name of the town? Symbolic? The film dedicated to tribes and Wanderers?
2. Conspiracy theories, paranoia, truth?
3. The screenplay, reflecting Arthur’s mind, confusion, memories, conspiracies, private investigator, detection, leads, and the end with the fact that he was numbered with the insertion?
4. The opening, the woman on the road, her death, the wound in the chest? The authorities? Taking her body? The later revelation about the garage, the destiny for the bodies? Arthur and his investigation, going below, the cells, the victims?
5. Arthur and Cleats, their friendship, old investigators, the caravan out in the desert, the pod cast and discussions?
6. Arthur, his age, memories of the accident, reliving them, the death of his wife, the death of his daughter? Suspicions? Vengeance? His being commissioned to investigate by the woman ringing the podcast? His meeting her, the confrontation, her death?
7. The town of Wander, the sheriff, authorities, suspicious characters, driving cars, the garage? The sheriff and the woman, Elsa? Later revelations about them both?
8. Arthur, disturbed in mind, agile in action, following leads, the rail lines, the binoculars, the garage? Keeping in contact with Cleats, sending the photos? His taking the photos and later sending them to Shelly? The friendship with Shelley, her concern?
9. The mystery about Cleats, keeping guard in the trailer, contact with Arthur, the photos? His seeming death? Alive? The investigation, his role? With Elsa?
10. Movements in time, forward and back, Elsa, the contriving the confrontation with the doctor behind the experiments, the sheriff, others present, the shooting? Arthur and his anger?
11. Elsa, her role, the FBI? Nick, with Shelley, the interrogation?
12. Arthur, arrested, prison, his mental situation, in the ward?
13. Shelley, receiving the photos, not just a conspiracy, but Arthur providing the evidence?
14. Arthur, gouging the plant out of his chest? The fact that he was controlled?
15. The blend of science fiction, conspiracy and reality?