“There’s a lot to love about this movie, a lot of heart to it, but it didn’t connect all the way where I think it needed to.
It kind of wants to be a portrait of Vonnegut the writer, kind of wants to be a portrait of Vonnegut the friend, and kind of wants to be about how difficult it is to make a movie of someone’s life. These are all great paths for a documentary like this, I just wished they’d picked 1, MAYBE 2 of the three and went that way.
It feels a little overstuffed as a result, I think it’s meant to, I think part of the idea is that making a movie this big that turns into this big a thing becomes an impossible, gigantic thing you can’t ever really do justice.
It probably also has something to do with the fact that Vonnegut was an interesting guy who didn’t want to talk about what is, objectively, the most interesting part of his life. Being in WWII and surviving Dresden obviously changed him in a lot of ways, or made him who he was. And he didn’t want to talk about it beyond what he’d already written into his books. Which is understandable, the issue is that outside of his war experience and his books (which the movie doesn’t get into too much), he’s a normal guy. An incredibly talented and hardworking writer, imaginative as all hell, but I wouldn’t say his family life or his work life outside of writing were all that unique. The products of his life were very unique, and I think that Vonnegut is a unique and special snowflake, but I don’t think that comes through in most of the beats on his personal timeline.
Or, maybe it doesn’t come through in the movie. Weide does say, more than once, how special it is to feel like he’s Kurt’s friend, how unusual that feels, but I don’t know if we get that sense, probably because Weide is kind of hesitant to be too much of a presence in the movie. Which I get, it makes sense, but if he could’ve gotten me over that initial hump of “Who the hell is this guy?” I think I would’ve taken that walk with him a little further down the trail.”