Debutant director Jennifer Cooney’s Wild Fire opens with a rich widow coming out of her room after suffering a bout of loss in her life. For her, the problem is more about a late-life identity crisis. The narrative sets the stage with three couples forming a circle after the centre character hosts a party. As they all get drunk and open up about their personal lives, the truth comes out.
The film is centered around middle-aged Elliana (Celeste Marcone), who owns a beautiful, picturesque home; but doesn’t have anyone to share it with after her husband’s sad demise. Her isolation leads us into the crevices of the tale, which then moves to a young couple of Del and her wife Avary (Madeleine Dee), who have resorted to fantasy role-plays in order to keep the fire in their relationship alive. The problem here is not isolation but a lack of clear communication where one person’s freewheeling nature is not in close claws with the other.
We also meet Massage therapist Ronnie (Siena D’Addario), her partner, and high-school sweetheart Tom (Sam Ball). The flaw in their relationship seems to be Ronnie’s confused sexuality. It’s her birthday, and while she is having sex with Tom, she is far away from being in the moment. We later learn that she has a thing for women and often fantasizes about them.
The last couple is that of Maeve (Annie Gill) and Noah (Todd Licea), and while their issue stems from a lack of passion in their married life, they have somehow normalized the lack of, or a need to engage in it in the first place constantly. This has also developed into a cold, distant relationship that puts both of them at the deep ends of the same pool, and there seems to be no escape from it.
The story, set mostly around the after-party of Elliana’s lavish 50th birthday party; and takes place over drinks and truth and dare, doesn’t seem obvious from the start. Director Jennifer Cooney lets us into their world but closes up on them soon. She also peppers her narrative with just the needed amount of sexual tension to keep things engaging. Still, the heavy-handed approach, which feels like straying far away from her own grasp of the themes, puts the movie’s motivations on a back-burner.
The musical cues are questionable and often jarringly inconsequential, leading you out of the moment of gravitas and diluting the impact a sequence could make. Cooney draws her inspiration from the 1983 Lawrence Kasdan movie ‘The Big Chill.’ However, besides the interesting chemistry between Ronnie and Avary, nothing much allows us to get to the inhibitions and issues these people are dealing with.
That said, Cooney manages to make her film appropriately sexy. Each frame of the film emits a raw, seething energy, and for a first-time director, that’s an interesting feat to achieve.
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