Have you ever felt so jaded that you said, "This is not my beautiful wife. This is not my beautiful house. What am I doing here?" Let it be known that my mind is effectively blown because, for the first time in the history of movie cliches, the makers of Wakefield didn't use that heavy-handed Talking Heads song to tell the audience that that is exactly what Mr. Wakefield is asking himself throughout the film. In the timeless and untimely tradition of American Beauty, Wakefield follows the emotional exploits of a rich, white dude going through his mid-life crisis in a quirky manner. This time, Bryan Cranston takes his turn at acting put upon. He decides to teach all of his loved ones a lesson by purposely making himself a missing person while observing their reactions from the confines of his garage attic. It's hard not to compare it to the other mid-life crisis film this year, Brad's Status. That film is an insipid bore because the protagonist is a pathetic, oblivious narcissist who narrates to himself all of the time, but this movie is slightly more compelling because the protagonist is an affluent sociopath with delusions of enlightenment...who narrates to himself all of the time. It's interesting, in as much as watching people with mental problems is entertaining. As for learning any great truths from this thought experiment, to abandon those who love you to see how important you actually are, you might be better off just staying at home. That is, if you aren't a white, male sociopath going through a mid-life crisis.