“Rebuilding” is a simmer of a movie on a low, steady fire. There’s no action, no noise, no explosive reveals; just a slow melding of sights and sounds and smells yielding a fragrance of human emotions.
Dusty is a kind, considerate, introverted man who has a hard time communicating with those around him. It’s probably the reason he’s divorced and alienated from his ex-wife and young daughter. A recent wildfire has decimated the hills and with it his ranch and home, both of which had been in his family for generations. No cattle, no crops, no future; just charred trees and toxic earth. Rehoused in a minimalist trailer on government land below the wiped out farmlands, he’s drowning in a desert surrounded by strangers, all of whom also lost their homes and lifelines.
Dusty, always the loner, makes no effort to connect with any of the others. They are not him; their losses were not his; his losses were not theirs. Slowly, out of quiet desperation, he reaches out to Ruby, his ex, and through her, to his young daughter, Callie-Rose. Encouraged to take a larger a role in her life, Dusty reluctantly agrees. At first it’s only the occasional school pick-up. Callie-Rose is fiercely independent and refuses any help he offers. Constantly on her iPad, doing homework, reading, playing. Dusty is a stranger to her and she’s reluctant to let him in. She is, however, quite intrigued with the rag tag group of fire survivors at his trailer camp. There really aren’t many of them and they are all very different, from the two gentle old ladies who still have tea each afternoon, to the wizened old couple who dream of taking to the road, to the friendly woman and her son, slightly older than Callie-Rose, whose husband stayed to save their home and never returned. Everyone has a story if you take the time to listen.
Gradually, Dusty begins to open up, if only slightly. He has decisions to make. Unable to ranch or till the soil, his choices are few. The only local job available is part of a road crew, holding that sign we all love so much: Stop/Slow. His brother in Wyoming has indicated that he could work on his ranch during calving season. But as he grows closer to his daughter and more understanding of his ex-wife’s needs, Wyoming seems as soulless as the highway work crew.
Max Walker-Silverman, the writer and director, lets us see Dusty’s slow and slight evolution as he tries to find a path that will allow him to stay connected to what little he has left. It’s the same kind of quiet magic he spun in “A Love Song” about a woman waiting by her trailer for her childhood love to show up, or maybe not. Cinematographer Alfonso Herrera Salcedo, who also worked on “A Love Song” has woven the ruined forests and rough-hewn living quarters into characters unto themselves, again finding warmth in the devastation and fullness in the temporary trailers. The comparison of what is and what was is found in surrounding landscapes.
The actors live comfortably, or in Dusty’s case uncomfortably in their characters. Meghann Fahy is a lovely, patient Ruby, his ex. Lily LaTorre plays Callie-Rose with all the colors of the rainbow, at once a petulant, rebellious child while also a loving, needing, not needy, daughter who opens up her father. These performances are subtle, not showy, and reveal themselves without any expository explanations. Amy Madigan plays Ruby’s mother with kindness written all over her aged face; a woman who understands and doesn’t judge. Josh O’Connor is a marvelous Dusty, the very definition of the not so strong but definitely silent type. Walker-Silverman has written a character who develops slowly before us. Dusty’s character development is subtle but decidedly there; a different person at the end than he was at the beginning, maturing or expanding by minute gradations, satisfyingly so. As Walker-Silverman has said, “Sometimes it takes loss to learn what we have.”
“Rebuilding” is not a blockbuster and may not attract the kind of attention it warrants during this season when the major studios release more movies than any other time of year. It would certainly be a shame if this one got lost in the shuffle.
Opening November 14 at the AMC Century City.
