<PERSON>
At first I couldn’t quite place my finger on the exact thematic pulse of what this film was trying to achieve. I was trying to decipher the purpose of all these seemingly arbitrary subplots and narrative tangents that appeared to have no connectivity with the central plot whatsoever. I also took issue with the fact that the movie always felt either too melodramatic, or not enough at all.
And then in an instance it all made sense.
This isn’t a film about a girl wrestling with the grief and guilt of being responsible for distracting a bus driver that resulted in the death of a pedestrian. It’s the exact opposite. This is a story about how life doesn’t revolve around any one person in particular. We are trained to assume that the world immediately centers around our self once tragedy strikes our existence. We are bred to eliminate the peripheral of anything beyond the end of our nose once we think our lives are more “important” than someone else’s. When in reality, life goes on. The Earth continues rotating, and moments fade into memory. 80
Thus, when someone encounters this harsh truth of the universe, how are they to respond?
This is a 2 and a half hour long odyssey about the true nature of our misfortunes. Life began far before we were born, and it shall continue far beyond our death. Any sort of “sense” or “justice” we can conjure is completely dependent upon the delusion of our fractured psyche. Your problems are large, and yet entirely void. It’s an incredibly nihilistic exploration about the very essence of catastrophe, and I adored it.
I don’t think this film is for everyone. In fact, I’m sure most will find it boring. But I thought it was beautiful. The only nitpick I have is that <PERSON> felt a bit weak in her performance. In fact, a lot of the acting in this was pretty wooden and stale. I’m not quite sure what the deal was there, but it bothered me for most of the film. 80