In 2020 the filmmaker Matt Smukler his most widely seen work then a Deutsche Telekom ad campaign starring Justin Bieber completed a short about his wifes sisters family. Sheila Stahl and her husband Mike were not so different from any other small town couple a pair of good Christians gratefully receiving the daily pleasures of their hobbies stock car racing arts and crafts their comfy recliners, and each others company. Smukler only began working on the project as a favor to their daughter Christina who wanted a video that could show college admissions boards the unique challenges and rewards of her home life.
Because her mother was born with a mental condition that severely impeded half of her brains development and because her father was never quite the same after sustaining that head injury in a motorcycling accident during his teenage years she had to act as primary caretaker to both her parents from a young age. Scheduling domestic finance and an endless stream of paperwork to ensure that the proper state benefits arrive at the proper time all fell to her, making higher education and the pursuit of her own path in adulthood into dicey propositions.
Smukler and screenplay by credit holder Jana Savage soon began shopping around a script for a narrative feature based on this uncommon household dynamic though he only gained traction once it was proven more common than anyone thought. Casting ramped up and production finally kicked off in October of last year just as the strikingly similar CODA emerged as the odds on Oscar favorite hinting at a public taste for feel good stories about generation gaps in colorful uncouth families living with disability. Presumably thats what financing production companies eOne and Limelight were looking for when they greenlit the concept in the market for another upbeat dramedy filtered through one girls coming of age. And thats just what they got with Wildflower a character piece so unconvincing in its bids for pathos that it feels more like a recycling of cinematic precedents than an adaptation of real life.
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