Demolition trailer: Jake Gyllenhaal takes a bulldozer to his old life

Sometimes to rebuild, you need to tear down. That’s the case for Jake Gyllenhaal’s grieving investment banker in the first trailer for the Jean-Marc Vallee-directed drama Demolition.

Gyllenhaal plays Davis, a suit-wearing New Yorker who loses his wife in a car crash. Still reeling from the accident, he writes a complaint letter to the company behind a malfunctioning hospital vending machine, the first of a series of revealing personal missives.

When his letters catch the attention of a customer service rep with her own troubles (Naomi Watts), the two form a connection and begin to piece Davis’ life back together. That involves leveling his sizable house — luckily, you can get bulldozers on eBay — and reckoning with a disapproving father-in-law (Chris Cooper).

Although Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild), Gyllenhaal, and Watts have all been in the Oscar conversation in recent years, Demolition is sitting out the coming award season and will open in select U.S. theaters April 8. That said, the film won’t be absent from the fall festival circuit: It’s opening the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday.

Watch the Demolition trailer below.

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•Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts join Dallas Buyers Club director’s next film

•Demolition to open Toronto International Film Festival

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