# Demolition (2015 film)
*Demolition* is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed by [Jean-Marc Vallée](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-marc-vallee) and written by Bryan Sipe, starring [Jake Gyllenhaal](https://www.edgepedia.org/jake-gyllenhaal) as a New York investment banker who unravels after his wife dies in a car crash and begins dismantling the objects around him while corresponding with a customer service representative played by [Naomi Watts](https://www.edgepedia.org/naomi-watts).[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/demolition) • [2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) Chris Cooper and Judah Lewis round out the principal cast.[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/demolition) The film opened the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release by Fox Searchlight on April 8, 2016.[3](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/reviews/481063-demolition-review)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writer | Jean-Marc Vallée; screenplay by Bryan Sipe[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/demolition) |
| Principal cast | Jake Gyllenhaal (Davis), Naomi Watts (Karen), Chris Cooper (Phil), Judah Lewis (Chris)[1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/demolition) • [4](https://www.netflixmovies.com/demolition-2015) |
| Festival and release | Opened the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2015; limited US release April 8, 2016 by Fox Searchlight[3](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/reviews/481063-demolition-review) |
| Runtime and rating | 100 minutes; rated R[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) • [1](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/demolition) |
| Box office | $4,366,460 worldwide, of which $1,978,592 was domestic; opening weekend $1,100,042[5](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1172049/) |
| Critical reception | 53% on Rotten Tomatoes (208 reviews); Metascore 49 on Metacritic (42 critics); 7.0/10 on IMDb from about 140,000 votes[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/demolition_2016) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/demolition/) • [8](https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt1172049/ratings/) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Yves Bélanger, editing Jay M. Glen, music Susan Jacobs[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a wealthy Manhattan investment banker who works at the firm founded and run by his father-in-law, Phil ([Chris Cooper](https://www.edgepedia.org/chris-cooper)). His wife Julia is at the wheel when another vehicle strikes their car, and she is killed; Davis, who was in the car and emerged nearly unscathed, is left to process a loss he cannot seem to feel.[4](https://www.netflixmovies.com/demolition-2015) • [9](https://time.com/4284806/jake-gyllenhaal-demolition/)
While recovering in the hospital, Davis tries to buy a bag of peanut M&M's from a vending machine that jams, and the complaint letter he writes to the manufacturer grows into a long, increasingly personal account of his own life.[9](https://time.com/4284806/jake-gyllenhaal-demolition/) • [4](https://www.netflixmovies.com/demolition-2015) The letters reach Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts), a customer service representative and single mother, who answers and begins trading confidences with him.[4](https://www.netflixmovies.com/demolition-2015) Karen shares her home with her boyfriend and employer Carl and her fifteen-year-old son Chris.[4](https://www.netflixmovies.com/demolition-2015)
Taking literally a remark from his father-in-law that "if you want to fix something, you have to take everything apart", Davis starts dismantling household appliances with a small toolkit and later joins construction workers in tearing a house apart with a sledgehammer.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) • [10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-demolition-review-20160408-story.html) The Quebec film classification record describes the story as an intimate epistolary monologue exploring the state of mind of a man destabilized by his loss and by unknown details he discovers about his wife.[11](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/demolition-398626/)
## Production and release
The screenplay by Bryan Sipe had been placed on the Black List of best unproduced screenplays in 2007, according to the Los Angeles Times.[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-demolition-review-20160408-story.html) Vallée, whose previous films *Dallas Buyers Club* and *[Wild](https://www.edgepedia.org/wild-2014-film)* had drawn acting Oscars and nominations, was described by the International Film Festival Rotterdam as a director who moves easily between psychological drama and romantic comedy and uses stylistic devices such as a passage of film played backwards.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition)
Production companies included Black Label Media, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Mr. Mudd, and Right of Way Films, with Sierra/Affinity handling international sales.[12](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172049/companycredits/) • [2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) *Demolition* premiered as the opening-night film of the [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) on September 10, 2015, and Fox Searchlight gave it a limited release on April 8, 2016.[3](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/reviews/481063-demolition-review) It was released in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2016.[13](https://thecriticalcritics.com/reviews/movie-review-demolition/)
## Reception
**Box office.** The film grossed $1,100,042 in its domestic opening and $1,978,592 domestically overall, about 45 percent of its $4,366,460 worldwide total.[5](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1172049/)
**Critical response.** On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 53% Tomatometer score from 208 reviews, with the site's critics consensus stating that it "benefits from a stellar cast, even if their solid work isn't always enough to prop up a confused story that aims for profundity but too often settles for clichés".[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/demolition_2016) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 49 based on 42 critics, categorized as mixed or average, while its user score stood at 6.9 from 167 ratings.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/demolition/)
Reviewers repeatedly singled out Gyllenhaal's performance even when criticizing the film. The *Tampa Bay Times* wrote that "Gyllenhaal's performance is the center that holds", and *Variety* praised him for grounding Davis's unraveling psyche, "finding both the humor and heart in a man who admits to having spent the past 10 to 12 years incapable of feeling".[14](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/demolition/critic-reviews/) Negative reviews targeted the script and structure: IndieWire judged that the film "spends its goodwill early on, eventually giving itself over to cheap-feeling twists and a problematic final act", and the Los Angeles Times called it "a well-meaning misfire, terribly earnest but unconvincing".[14](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/demolition/critic-reviews/) • [10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-demolition-review-20160408-story.html) Time's review credited Gyllenhaal with showing "grief as a kind of force field, discombobulating until you get used to dealing with its unpredictable pulses of energy".[9](https://time.com/4284806/jake-gyllenhaal-demolition/)
Audience measures diverged from the critics: IMDb users gave the film 7.0/10 from about 140,000 votes, and the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter stood at 56 percent from more than 5,000 ratings.[8](https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt1172049/ratings/) • [6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/demolition_2016)
## Themes and style
The film's central device is literalized metaphor: a man who cannot grieve takes apart refrigerators, restroom stalls, and eventually buildings, on the theory that something broken must be dismantled before it can be repaired.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) • [10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-demolition-review-20160408-story.html) The Los Angeles Times considered this a case of "a metaphor being taken too far", while the [Rotterdam](https://www.edgepedia.org/rotterdam) festival program read the demolition work as Davis's search for footing in physicality.[10](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-demolition-review-20160408-story.html) • [2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) Reviewers also noted the film's formal restlessness, with flashbacks and jump cuts suggesting repressed emotions surfacing.[2](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition) A recurring critical observation, made by *The Globe and Mail* among others, was that the film does not remain true to the "bitter whimsy" with which it begins.[14](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/demolition/critic-reviews/)
## References
1. [Demolition, 20th Century Studios](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/demolition)
2. [Demolition, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2016/films/demolition)
3. [Demolition Review, ComingSoon.net](https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/reviews/481063-demolition-review)
4. [Demolition (2015) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/demolition-2015)
5. [Demolition (2015), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt1172049/)
6. [Demolition, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/demolition_2016)
7. [Demolition, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/demolition/)
8. [Demolition (2015) ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/fr/title/tt1172049/ratings/)
9. [Review: Jake Gyllenhaal Does All the Heavy Lifting in Demolition, Time](https://time.com/4284806/jake-gyllenhaal-demolition/)
10. [Review: Despite Jake Gyllenhaal's strong support, 'Demolition' fails to stand up as an involving film, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-demolition-review-20160408-story.html)
11. [Demolition, Répertoire des films classés, Gouvernement du Québec](https://repertoire.cinema.mcc.gouv.qc.ca/film/demolition-398626/)
12. [Demolition (2015) company credits, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172049/companycredits/)
13. [Movie Review: Demolition (2015), The Critical Movie Critics](https://thecriticalcritics.com/reviews/movie-review-demolition/)
14. [Demolition critic reviews - Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/demolition/critic-reviews/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2015 and 2016 › Released in 2015*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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