Review of Wellness

I saw the North American Premiere of this movie on Saturday March 8, 2008 as part of the SXSW film festival, and it has the best storyline and worst production of any of the movies that I saw during this festival. About the production - the camera was shaky, a lot of the shots are in-and-out of focus, and the sound was terrible. Many of the cars that drive by in the scenes are louder than the characters talking. About the story - we follow a traveling salesman while he is trying to sell investments into a product that he knows nothing about. The lead actor Jeff Clark (who plays Thomas Lindsay) does a marvelous job of evoking the audience's sympathy. The story is one of the most interesting and unique that I have seen in a narrative feature in a long time. As I watched the credits, I realized that the filmmaker Jake Mahaffy wore many different hats while making this film (writer, directer, camera) which explains why the production was so bad. I hope that he continues to make films because the production issues can be fixed with money; great stories are priceless.

The filmmaker and lead actor were present for the viewing and a brief Q & A. I was surprised to learn the lead actor was actually non-actor, and the only other actor who had a significant role was Jake Mahaffy's father (who plays Tom's boss Paul), who was also a non-actor. Somebody asked what it is like to work with non-actors. Mahaffy's response was very interesting and enlightening. He said that it doesn't make any sense to write a script and make a non-actor memorize it. So instead, he tries to communicate a concept of story and feelings, and much of the story is non-scripted. For example, there is a great scene with Tom Lindsay and his boss Paul. Mahaffy instructed Clark that he was doing a great job as a salesman, and Paul really likes him. Mahaffy separately instructed his father that Tom was doing a terrible job, and he needed a severe ass-chewing. The approach worked, and the scene was great!