Excellent movie. A weird and unusual story that is worth it to watch for the emotions and thinking process of this man who has not only left his family but most of all lost himself. Great acting. Touching moments when the disabled 2 children reach him. They seem to understand each other very well, helping him without judgement. Wakefield is one to definitively seek out.

Directed by Robin Swicord in 2016 based on the 2008 short story of same name by E. L. Doctorow, this American drama delves into a moody meditation on modern living, purpose and love.
Doctorow's short story was inspired by the 1835 story of the same title by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
It is an audacious and thought-provoking film, in which the protagonist leaves his family and eventually leaves himself.
Probably, you will feel totally unsatisfied at the end as I did.
I don't like this drama, but Franz Schubert's Impromptus #3 sounds great!

Unusual movie but good acting. I did enjoy it!

I found this a well-acted and very clever story. I know comments were both positive and negative but I really liked it!

My partner and I watched this film with some interest, but found it disappointing and of little worth. The story did raise many questions about what one "should have done" instead of the unlikely situation of what played out in this film. Was an unsettling ending to a film that had just invested the audience through what was more than an improbable story.
After seeing Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad and Godzilla, I do not think he has much of a range as an actor.

A twisted glimpse into narcissism, sadism,and misogyny. Bryan Cranston plays an entitled middle-aged man who decides to just disappear (bwa-ha-ha!) from his adult responsibilities. He hides out in the second-story of his family's garage, voyeuristically overlooking his home, and scavenges from his neighbors' garbage to survive, providing a bitter voice-over as he watches his family (especially his younger, beautiful trophy wife, Jennifer Garner, in a thankless role) process his disappearance and move on with their lives. Please use the hour and a half to do something positive in your life rather than watch this film :-), similar in tone and worldview to the older film with Michael Douglas, "Falling Down".

What a nasty little man. Turned it off.

Great acting,but incomplete ending.

I don't think I would be wrong in saying this guy is likely the most hated anti-villian in film history right now! And yet, that is oddly a compliment both to WAKEFIELD and Cranston who portrayed him.

I get that this is not to be taken literally, but still... A monstrously self-absorbed man takes a vacation from his life by disappearing and living in the attic of his garage. Leaves his wife and children to just get on without him, all the time watching and judging their subsequent actions. Flashbacks show him to be even more of a jerk (and stalker) than he appears in the present time.

Such is the sexism in Hollywood that Cranston's wife is portrayed by Jennifer Garner, who is about 25 years younger than him. Because older women in H-wood films are not to be countenanced. Even non-billionaires must have a younger wife. And then people write articles telling women to "just be more confident." Jesus wept.