Will III and his father, Will Jr. must learn to cohabit for a month in order to fulfil the codicil to their grandfather/father’s will (also called Will). If one of them leaves the property, they forfeit their half of the millions of dollars to the other. If they both leave, all the money goes to charity.
The premise is simple and clever: Will Will and Will fulfil the codicil to Will’s will? War of the Wills (directed by George Dondero) utilises forced proximity to create tension, drama and story. We can see there’s a lot of history between Will III and his father in the fact they hate each other and would sooner share a house with a lion for a month than each other. Initially it seems grandfather Will sought to bring his heirs closer together through his strange codicil, but as the film unfolds, it becomes apparent that truce is not an option. And something sinister lurks in the shadows of their family name. The grandfather simply seeks to cause trouble, even from beyond the grave.
Will III is initially sceptical about the whole debacle. It seems no amount of money will coerce him into this strange social experiment. But when he finds he needs the money to complete an investment in a project he was working on, Will III takes the plunge. How bad can it be?
As it turns out, pretty darn bad.
With two security guards working 12 hours shifts, Will III and his father must live together without leaving the house for a month, or forfeit their half of the inheritance. The trial begins and the pair immediately butt heads when Will’s father stocks the fridge with nothing but beer. Will retaliates by taking a bath in the beer since it’s technically “their beer”. But what begins as petty arguments and attempts to one-up the other soon turns dark and dangerous.
Will III is by no means perfect. He has anger management issues, relationship issues and problems at work. What separates him from his father is that Will III is trying to work on these things. He meditates to calm his anger and is trying his best with work. But being trapped in close proximity to his father is too much to handle for Will and his emotions frequently boil over. The sickening part of the film comes from Will Jr. Rather than trying to simply get through their time together, Will III’s father reveals himself as a sociopathic narcissist. He manipulates and deceives in order to try and get Will to quit, leaving him with the full inheritance. First he meddles with Will’s already fragile relationships, then he manipulates certain situations to look like Will III is suffering with mental health problems. This escalates to a new low when Will’s father doses him with drugs to make him sick.
The performance of Steven David Martin is particularly commendable. There were times I felt myself warming towards him, forgetting he was chronically gaslighting everyone around him. He manages to be so trustworthy in one instance, but then utterly monstrous in the next. Kot Takahashi responds very well to Martin. His explosions of anger contrast sharply with moments of extreme reserve and control. Together the two are a dangerous storm, spoiling to wreak havoc on the house and bring everything crashing down.
While trying to claim the inheritance for himself and shun his son of his share, Will’s father is also trying to escape a “curse” that has followed their family for generations. Apparently all the sons in their family murder their fathers. In a sort of Cain vs Abel, mythical fusion, Will tells his son the “curse” of their family. But which Will will succeed, and will the curse be broken or reversed?
With high drama and wild emotions, George Dondero’s The War of the Wills contains some biblical twists and turns.
Watch the trailer below!