Finding love and loving life is never easy.
Wild Honey, the newest feature from writer-director Francis Stokes, follows one of society’s outcasts, but shows us just how much heart it takes to love yourself while trying to love others.
Gabby (Rusty Schwimmer) has taken a job as a phone sex operator, something she seems to be pretty good at, even as she falls well short of society’s definition of a bombshell. It’s not the life she wanted, but she needs to pay the bills. This appears to be as good a way as any.
After leaving her philandering boyfriend Vince (Todd Stashwick) and moving in with her mother (Paulette Cary), Gabby acquires a regular caller Martin (Timothy Omundson) who “just wants to talk.” They spend a lot of time talking about anything and everything and an idea hits her: She’s going to leave Chicago and visit him in Los Angeles. What could go wrong?
While in La La Land, she reconnects with her sister Esther (Stephnie Weir) who is living the American Dream but has precious little time to enjoy it. In fact, her assistant Greta (Stephanie Jane Markham) spends more time with Gabby than her sister.
The eventually meeting of Gabby and Martin goes swimmingly. It’s a day-long date that is so natural, so easy and fun, that the audience can’t help but enjoy themselves along with the budding couple.
Things soon fall apart, and Gabby has to eventually confront the state of her life and the direction it’s heading. Through some hard choices and grace-filled encounters, she ends the movie in a much better place than she started it, warts and all.
Wild Honey is a bittersweet comedy about getting older, finding love, and finding one’s place in this world. Stokes has assembled a cast that is bereft of star power but packed with acting chops. Every character is played with such skill that the story itself is able to be told without pulling any punches.