Every Hollywood star fears the moment when their drawing power at the box-office starts to disappear. For two of the big 1980s names - Dennis Quaid and Debra Winger - such moment came in 1993 when they starred in Wilder Napalm, supernatural comedy directed by Glenn Gordon Caron. While it isn't unusual thing for a film to collapse at the box-office, few of them became so obscure as this one did.
The protagonists of Wilder Napalm are two Foudroyant brothers who share pyrokinesis - ability and are able to start fires with their own thoughts. Thing that they don't share is the character. Wilder (played by Arliss Howard) is introvert who wants tolive a like a normal man and doesn't want anything to do with his gift. More extrovert Wallace (played by Dennis Quaid) have chosen the path of circus performer. After many years two brothers meet and realise that they share another thing - lust towards the same woman, Vida (played by Debra Winger), who is pyromaniac. Since Vida happens to be Wilder's wife, the never resolved conflicts between the brothers are going to heat up.
The name which is usually associated with Wilder Napalm belongs to Vince Gilligan, screenwriter who later became one of the most popular members of The X-Files writing team, responsible for the more romantic and humorous episodes of that TV show. In his first major movie script he shows great ability to mix supernatural themes with romantic comedy - combination that, judging by the abysmal results of Practical Magic, can often lead to disastrous results. Gilligan's approach (which is going to be employed by The X-Files and myriad of similar shows) is to view supernatural from the perspective of normal people who have to experience such phenomena on regular basis. Gilligan's script is helped by the great cast - both Winger and Quaid are very good in their roles, although relatively less known Arliss Howard steals the show. Unfortunately, the director Glenn Gordon Caron was not exactly up to the task. The film was too slow in the beginning and too rapid in the finale, and the comic, light-hearted tone was compromised with extremely serious scenes that draw Wilder Napalm to the territory of drama. Thankfully, those moments don't last too long and this obscure little film is nevertheless going to entertain those who give it a chance.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on July 10th 2001)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/55950-wilder-napalm?language=en-US Critic: AA
