Boring, long, and too preachy.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Based on a relatively low-key graphic novel by Daniel Clowes, Wilson is a frustrating black comedy that can't quite come up with the goods to match its leading man Woody Harrelson.In one of his best roles since True Detective and delivering his best big screen turn since he rolled out the cowboy hat for Zombieland in 2009, Woody Harrelson is a delight as the cantankerous, rude, obnoxious and somehow likeable Wilson.A perennial loser who just doesn't get why everyone around him is an idiot and can't quite bring himself to adapt to modern day life, you wouldn't call the character of Wilson a stretch for Harrelson to play but it doesn't take away from the fact that Harrelson completely nails his turn.It's a joy (often cringeworthily so) watching Harrelson interact with actors like Laura Dern, Judy Greer and Margo Martindale and as Wilson begins to gather a greater appreciation for life after he finds out he has a teenage daughter and realises he needs love and friendship in his world, Harrelson is up for the journey but sadly Craig Johnson's film isn't.Working alongside Wilson creator Clowes, Johnson has a tough time balancing the films tonal shifts between oddball comedy, life affirming drama and romantically tinged musings and it often feels like the film is uncomfortable in its own skin as we're taken along from scene to scene and scenarios that worked in the graphic novel don't quite come across as well in the film treatment.We never full connect to Wilson and his relationship with Dern's ex-wife Pippi or his burgeoning friendship with Isabella Amara as his estranged daughter Claire, which makes a large portion of the films middle-section feel rather so-so. The other issue is that while the film often is laugh out loud funny, there is a large percentage of the films jokes that don't hit the way they should, making the film at times awkward when it wasn't even aiming to be.Final Say - Wilson is a slight film, a small-scale character study of a man who's failed to see the meaning of life for many a moon and while Harrelson is brilliant in a role he could undoubtedly play in his sleep, the film around him just never clicks into a gear that would've made this tale something truly special.2 ½ amusement park rides out of 5

The hero is too annoying for his age. As if he didn't learn before through punches in the face. The light comes when he get in jail. Not credible, unless he's a benign psychopath.

Wilson (Woody Harrelson) is a cynical crank. His only two 'friends' are moving to St. Louis. He leaves his dog with Shelly (Judy Greer) to visit his father dying from cancer. He tracks down estranged ex-wife Pippi (Laura Dern) and discovers that she didn't have the abortion 17 years earlier. He finds their daughter Claire (Isabella Amara) given up for adoption.Harrelson is good although the movie doesn't get good until he finds Pippi. It would be better to get there faster. Once they connect with Claire, the movie is funnier with greater stakes. The trio is fun but then the movie keeps jumping ahead and ahead. It would be more compelling to let the trio deal with their issues but the plot drifts away from that. The further away it goes, the less compelling it is. However, it does always have an interesting character study underneath everything and it does allow the characters to deal with their issues.

Ghost World the movie and graphic novel seemed to work for the most part, but after some years I always come to the graphic novel because that is what Clowes is good at. I think even if you write the screenplay you are not in charge of your work after that. You have to deal with all the other parts. The main part being the stars performance and the director's choices. I think it worked for Ghost World, but it didn't work here for Wilson. I loved the Graphic Novel, but the movie was something else. Perhaps it should have be so. Something completely different. Harrelson was good and so was Dern, but it all didn't seem to work right. I think we didn't understand why Wilson was this way and Harrelson felt like he was stuck in the middle of this world, too. It just didn't work. I think though if this movie was done in the 80's or 90's it may have felt more fresh. Something about the jokes and the things Wilson did just didn't feel right in his time period. The scene in the bathroom with the other man just didn't make sense to me. It's something Jim Carrey would do, but not Wilson. I thought he was more sophisticated and funny and awful in this other way. I think that moment sealed the deal for me and when certain parts of the movie was directly coming from the graphic novel it just felt forced. The train scene with the sleeping guy comes to mind. Oh well. I wanted to love this.