Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot Review (2018)

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot

  Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot is the true story of a quadriplegic, comic-writer that must go through the 12 steps program to break his addiction to alcohol.
  I went in not knowing anything about this story other than the fact that Joaquin Phoenix was playing the main character.
  Surprise, surprise, he did amazing. Phoenix always manages to create sympathetic characters out of people that should by every stretch of the imagination be unlikeable. He is just so good at what he does and he always brings it 100% to every film he's in, and Don't Worry isn't an exception. That said, he is probably the only reason this film has any whatch-ability because otherwise, I wasn't too impressed.
  Now, Don't Worry wasn't a bad film, but it did have a lot of problems. The biggest being the pacing and the non-linear way of telling the story.
  There were times where the film jumps to the past, then jumps to the future, and then cuts to a flashback, and ultimately the timeline just felt confusing, serving no purpose whatsoever to the story. This bizarre editing choice only stilted the effect the story could have had with a more conventional outline, and it took me out of the film.
  There were also times where they tried for humor, and in almost every case for me it fell flat. This could totally be a personal preference more than an objective critique of the film though, considering the character has a quirky sense of humor that not everybody gets. For me what was awkward about the delivery was the jarring insert of comics in the form of a cartoon with Phoenix's voice narrating them. The tone was odd, and simply didn't work for me.
  In the end, this film wants to be more poignant and inspiring than it is, but Phoenix's strong performance keeps it's head above water and makes it worth at least one viewing. 5 out of 10 stars (Rent It)