Movie Review: 'The Dark Divide'

David Cross is not the first name that comes to mind when looking for an actor to explore a character of depth and grave sadness. Best known for his caustic stand up comedy, the absurdist skits of Mr Show and the boundless silliness of Tobias on Arrested Development, it's rare when David Cross is seen in anything requiring an earnest expression of any sort.

That is a part of why the new movie The Dark Divide works so well, it's so unexpected. I was consistently surprised throughout this thoughtful, sad, sweet little movie by how much honest pathos Cross was bringing to this true life story of a lepidopterist who went into the woods grieving his late wife, nearly got himself killed and came out a new man with new purpose.

The Dark Divide stars David Cross as real life bestselling author and butterfly expert, Robert Pyle. A respected researcher, professor and environmentalist, Robert Pyle wasn't known as a hiker or survivalist when he decided he was going to take his Guggenheim Grant and use it to document the butterfly species of The Dark Divide, a mountain range in the Pacific northwest.

With plenty of knowledge but little actual skill in hiking or camping, Robert Pyle set out on what was to be a 30 day trek and was lost for more than a month, wandering the mountains, encountering loggers, locals, bears, and even the legendary spotted owl. All the while he kept tracking butterflies and moths while encountering all manner of folly due to his inexperience and hubris.

That's the story on the surface. Underneath the peace and beauty of the mountains and beyond the turmoil Robert's inexperience caused for himself, is a story of a deeply sad man battling his grief by battling the elements. A man in the midst of a peaceful forest desperately seeking peace in his own mind.

When Robert Pyle received his Guggenheim Grant it was merely months after his beloved wife, Thea, played beautifully in flashbacks by Debra Messing, had died from Cancer. Robert and Thea had one of those lovely marriages you dream about where his work and her work coalesce into a partnership of souls perfectly in harmony. She painted butterfly illustrations for his books and he adored and doted on her.

It's an absurd cruelty for anyone to get cancer but it appears particularly cruel when two people who appear so happy together suffer such a fate. As played by Cross and Messing you can't imagine anyone else with this Robert Pyle. The expression of love is so deeply felt that you imagine him not being able to function in a world without her.

That is what makes his journey so compelling. Robert, the character, I don't know the real man, is learning to survive in a world unmoored from the one thing that had grounded him, the one thing, other than butterflies, that he can make sense of. You can see it in how Cross's Robert interacts with the rest of the world. People other than Thea are a puzzle to him. He's capable of politeness and kindness, and basic human interaction, but he's desperately ill at ease.

The odd energy is why David Cross is actually a perfect choice for this role. A more traditional actor might have leaned into the quirks, Cross is already quirky in his own right. It's more natural for Cross to be so ill at ease and that gives the character of Robert Pyle a sense of realism, he's not practiced or mannered. Does Cross occasionally lean into unnecessary comedy of the intentionally awkward kind? Yes, but that's only a couple of scenes.

Most of the movie, Cross is alone in nature or flashing back to just he and Debra Messing and in those scenes, his sadness comes to the fore and it is human and compelling. The sadness of Robert Pyle is like an extra weight he's carrying in his backpack during his hike, weighing him down physically and emotionally. Thus, as he sheds some of the things he's carrying, through ineptitude or action, it's a literal expression of him letting some of that weight go.

The Dark Divide is now in theaters and available in virtual cinemas as well via the website TheDarkDivideFilm.com.