Movie Review on "Wilson"

“It got pretty extreme,” said Woody Harrelson, cabernet in hand, at the after-party for his new movie, “Wilson,” which was screened Sunday night at the Whitby Hotel in Manhattan.

Mr. Harrelson, who plays the part of an irascible loner who is blunt to a fault, said that he found it difficult to slip out of character while on the set, even after the cameras stopped rolling.

“I would say things I normally wouldn’t,” said the actor, who lives in Maui. “I would think things and just say them.”

In “Wilson,” a gimlet-eyed comedy written by the graphic novelist Daniel Clowes (“Ghost World”) and directed by Craig Johnson (“The Skeleton Twins”), Mr. Harrelson plays a middle-aged misanthrope who means well enough but simply cannot help referring to overweight people as “hippos” and haranguing strangers on empty commuter trains about their life choices.

No wonder he spends much of the movie trying to reassemble a scattered family that wants little to do with him. But, hey, at least he’s honest.

After the screening, an intimate crowd of A-listers (Don Lemon, Meg Ryan, the Edge from U2) gathered for drinks and their own honest talk.

Laura Dern, who plays Wilson’s former wife, Pippi, said that “Wilson” was a reminder of how the world seemed so truth-starved at the moment.

Aiming an apparent potshot at Washington, Ms. Dern observed how odd it was “that con men give people comfort.” The actress, who was wearing a black-and-blue Proenza Schouler dress that hid dominatrix-high Sergio Rossi high-heeled boots, added, “I would rather somebody be in my face, saying something that I might not feel as comfortable hearing, but need to hear, rather than believing a lie that is going to fall apart.”

Other partygoers expressed a secret connection with Wilson — even Dick Cavett, that paragon of charm who seems unable to utter any mot that is not bon. “I actually think they just lock, stock and barrel stole my personality for the character,” he said.

When pressed for an example of his honesty, Mr. Cavett stepped out of earshot of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who was standing nearby with his wife, Cheryl Hines, who plays Polly in the movie — and recalled a time years ago when a member of “an American clan” assailed him for featuring Jimmy Hoffa on his talk show. (Mr. Hoffa and Mr. Kennedy’s father, who had been the attorney general of the United States, got along about as well as Godzilla and Mothra.)

When things got testy, Mr. Cavett recalled, he fired back, “I hate to have to tell you this, Mrs. X, but often I do a show without first considering how it will go over at Hyannis Port.”

While Wilson’s verbal parries lack such cocktail-ready polish, Mr. Johnson, the director, said the character was not without his charms, simply because Mr. Harrelson had an abundance of them.

“What Woody brings is ineffable — call it charisma, call it charm, likability,” the director said. “You can go on a ride with him and you can forgive him terrible things.”

He added: “That’s why he gets cast as psychopaths and serial killers and corrupt cops. Because you can forgive Woody. He’s got that little twinkle in his eyes.”