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The 2015 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicked off with Demolition, a feature film starring Jake Gyllenhaal and directed by Quebec’s Jean-Marc Vallée.
About an investment banker who begins to deconstruct his life following the death of his wife, the movie title is more than a metaphor — it features plenty of real-life demolition action.
At the film’s TIFF press conference, scriptwriter Bryan Sipe said he was inspired by his real-life experiences working for a demolition contractor in his late teens.
"I never understood how things were put together, but once I was able to pull it all apart and see the frame, I could see that’s how the roof is held up and the door’s there," he recalled.
"I couldn’t build it, but I get it. I think even at that age before I was a writer, my writer’s brain was already processing that analogy, and it came in handy years later."
The film is due for general release in theatres next April.
Interviewed by CBC Radio’s Shadrach Kabango on Q, director Vallée described how Gyllenhaal’s character worked his way up to destroying his own house.
"He starts with deconstructing his fridge, then he takes all the different elements apart and he’s breaking them," Vallée said.
"Then he does the same with his computer. He sees a site where people are doing some demolition of a house before rebuilding and he asks them ‘can I join you — that looks like fun.’ So he starts to work with these guys. After working with them he has the idea of taking apart his marriage and he starts breaking apart the house with this kid, demolishing and trying to feel something again."
Gyllenhaal explained he literally demolished an actual house built on set in front of the cameras, using sledgehammers and chop saws, often getting in the mood with the assistance of director Vallée.
"We always do something physical with the demolition," said Gyllenhaal.
"He built an entire half of a house and then he gave me and (fellow actor) Judah (Lewis) tools and we were supposed to destroy the house ourselves."
"Maybe he destroyed a couple of things himself because he needed to, because he had spent so much time preparing it and he had really looked forward to breaking some windows."
Demolition is slated to open in April. However, for movie fans who can’t get enough of cinematic demolition, there’s a host of available films that can deliver right now:
A Plumbing We Will Go (1940)
The Three Stooges — Moe, Larry and Curly — tear the plaster and wiring out of a posh mansion. The only problem is that they were hired to fix the plumbing. A painful experience for any homeowner who ever hired a contractor on craigslist.
House Busters (1952)
Talking magpies, Heckle and Jeckle, are demolition experts trying to level an old house as an escaped convict hiding inside tries to save it. Catchy company song: "Give us a house to wreck, we’ll tear it down by heck!"
Volcano (1997)
A volcano rears its ugly head in the middle of Los Angeles. Tommy Lee Jones figures out how to divert the burning flow of lava to the ocean by ordering a demolition crew to plan a complicated condominium implosion in less than 20 minutes. Hurray! The building’s carcass diverts the lava to the ocean and LA now has an active volcano, Mount Wiltshire, as its newest tourist attraction!
Session 9 (2001)
Members of an asbestos abatement crew working in an abandoned psychiatric hospital spend too much time listening to old tapes of patients apparently suffering from demonic possession. They wind up demolishing each other instead of the building.
Walled In (2009)
A junior partner at a demolition company takes on her first solo job, flattening a concrete apartment tower in the middle of nowhere. The problem is that its murderous architect has long since been reported dead…and he isn’t leaving.
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