This
Christmas my nephews bought me Minecraft so I could play it with them, and one
of the first things I did in it was create my own ocelot. I’ve always wanted
one, but unfortunately they are wild animals and are thus inadvisable to keep
as pets (unless you are Salvador Dali—look up Babou if you don’t know Babou). Minecraft,
zoos and documentaries such as Wildcat will have to suffice for my
ocelot fix, as I am not a famous surrealist artist, but Amazon Prime’s Wildcat
is much more than an excuse to watch a big cat do little cat things:
Capable of switching from heartbreaking to uplifting on a dime, the story of
Harry, Sam and Keanu is a worthy emotional ordeal that is beautifully
done despite a couple of moments that seem a little performative as well as
exploitative.
Harry is a twenty-something veteran
of the war in Afghanistan who suffers from acute depression and PTSD. Looking
for purpose, he finds himself in the Amazon, and there meets a conservationist
named Sam. From there the couple takes it upon themselves to raise an abandoned
ocelot kitten named Keanu with the end goal of eventually reintroducing him
into the wild. Triumphant moments and heartbreak ensue because, as it turns
out, raising an ocelot can be tough, especially when one of the adopted parents
in question is often suicidal and almost always deeply depressed.
It’s a frighteningly candid look at
mental illness, and one that can be quite uncomfortable at times, but it’s also
one that is important to understand and impossible not to be sympathetic
towards. In Keanu Harry finds redemption and purpose, but the road getting
there is as bumpy as life can make it. I greatly enjoyed the real-life story of
Wildcat, but there were also points where it seemed as if the camera
people should have just put their stuff down and helped rather than letting
Harry have largely unedited and unfiltered mental breakdowns for our
“entertainment,” for lack of a better word. The film then goes on to suggest
that our melancholy protagonist will be all right solely because of his
experiences in the Amazon when years of therapy are undoubtedly still ahead of
him. Harry and Sam are also either much more eloquent than I am or a couple of
the things they said were previously written (or at least very well thought
out) long beforehand, as a line or two can come off as slightly manufactured
and rehearsed. But the vast majority of Wildcat is boldly genuine and heartfelt,
and you will feel every moment of it.
A word to the wise—Wildcat is
not an easy journey, nor is this R-rated film one that you should watch with
kids or people sensitive to thematic elements. Self-harm and suicide is often
discussed in frank terms, and let’s just say that Keanu was not the first baby
ocelot that Harry tried to raise. A fun time solely devoted to feline
shenanigans this is not, although the heavy moments are wonderfully balanced
out by refreshingly joyful ones as well.
Wildcat is
now available on Amazon Prime.
This review was first published in The Keizertimes on January 13th, 2023. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/
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