In 1979, teenage brothers Donnie and Joe Emerson released an album titled “Dreamin’ Wild,” featuring songs such as “Good Time,” “My Heart,” “Dream Full of Dreams” and “Baby.” Sporting high-collared, white jumpsuits and Donny Osmond-esque hairdos, the lads appeared to be on the precipice of stardom.
Except nobody bought their album. They retreated back to a quiet life in the Pacific Northwest, never to be heard from again — until a record collector stumbled upon the album some 30 years later, was enthralled by the melodic and haunting blue-eyed soul sounds, raved about it online, and set off a viral explosion that led to the re-release of “Dreamin’ Wild,” and one last chance for the now middle-aged Donnie and Joe Emerson.
That sounds like something straight out of a Christopher Guest movie, or a spiritual sequel to “Gentle & Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee,” the “Behind the Music” satire in the “Documentary Now!” series, but here’s the thing: This is a true story, and it’s now getting the feature film treatment in Bill Pohlad’s warm and elegiac and lovely “Dreamin’ Wild,” with Casey Affleck doing his disheveled-restless-socially awkward thing in a searingly strong performance as the brilliantly talented Donnie, and the versatile Walton Goggins making the most of an opportunity to play a genuinely nice regular guy in Joe, who always knew he was at best the Ringo to Donnie’s John.
As Pohland did with the 2014 Brian Wilson biopic “Love & Mercy,” which had Paul Dano playing the younger version of Wilson and John Cusack playing middle-aged Brian, “Dreamin’ Wild” features two sets of actors playing the brothers — but it’s a simple, straightforward choice, with Noah Jupe and Jack Dylan Grazer playing Donnie and Joe, respectively, as teenagers.
In the sentimental and dreamy past, the boys live on the family’s 1,700-acre pine farm, which includes a studio built for them by their loving and supportive father, Don Sr. (the wonderful Beau Bridges), a simple and prayerful man who believes in them. With Donnie writing and arranging the songs and playing multiple instruments while Joe endeavors to keep up on drums, the boys’ demo tapes attract the interest of a record producer who convinces the family that Donnie should head to L.A., while Don Sr. mortgages more and more pieces of the farm to finance the operation. When the album bombs, Donnie returns home, and dreams of stardom are stored away.
In present day, Joe (now played by Goggins) lives and works on the farm, which is now down to a few dozen acres, while Donnie (Affleck) and his wife Nancy (a sparkling Zooey Deschanel) live nearby, managing a struggling recording studio and playing cover-band gigs at weddings and local taverns. These are their lives. These are their destinies. Not tragic, just … unfulfilled.
Then, in a scene that would seem to be pure movie hokum except it basically really happened, the indie label boss Matt Sullivan (Chris Messina) arrives at the farm practically exploding with great news: The album has become a viral sensation, the New York Times is sending a reporter to write a story, and Matt’s label, Light in the Attic, wants to re-release the album and set up a showcase performance at the Showbox in Seattle that could lead to a tour.
With cinematographer Arnoud Potier providing just the right measure of hand-held camera work to add to the docudrama feel, the look on Donnie’s face as his family celebrates this great news says it all. Perhaps the only thing more stressful for Donnie than anonymity and failed dreams is the opportunity for redemption — especially because he doesn’t feel at all connected to those old songs and would prefer to write and perform music that reflects his worldview now. As for Joe: He’s just grateful for the opportunity to spend time with his distant brother, to provide whatever percussion support and emotional support he can.
Joe is a good guy. Everybody in “Dreamin’ Wild,” with the exception of the off-screen producer who apparently fleeced the family all those years ago, is decent, and kind, and honest, and true. (Messina’s Matt Sullivan is one of the most likable and fair-minded music producers in movie history.) Donnie realizes he’s a borderline cliché — the musical genius who isn’t happy unless he’s unhappy — but he’s spent 30 years unable to shake off the guilt he feels over the family losing most of the farm, and he feels the pressure of making the most out of this one chance, because he truly lives to write and make music, and he would also do anything to literally pay back his father.
We can see the conflicts coming down the road in “Dreamin’ Wild,” and there’s a case of Resolution Overload when we get two big emotional closure scenes back-to-back, but our story ends on just the right note, so to speak, when Affleck, Goggins and Deschanel are in character, playing in a local pub, and we segue to the real-life Donnie, Joe and Nancy in that same setting, making some beautiful music.
