Poetry

In general, I've tried to stay away from foreign films, but it's mostly because I feel too lazy to read subtitles. I know this is a stupid excuse, especially because I've enjoyed every foreign film that I've seen, and last night was no exception.

The best aspect of the film that I keep coming back to is the simple yet powerful pacing throughout the story, despite all the technological hiccups. There were never any voice overs for us to see the characters' thoughts, but rather we were shown her actions and emotions when she visited the science lab for example. And through her exploration of poetry, despite the developing Alzheimer's disease, we can clearly see her emotions. Still, the ending is so subtle that it's hard to catch exactly what happens. I know there were some in the room who clearly stated how they hated the ending, but I appreciate a story that keeps me intrigued right until the very last frame.

Leeper also drew connections with two characters in the movie—the girl and the grandma. The relationships and similarities between the characters is also so subtle, but it's extremely important to the story because it's the only way you can understand what happens.

I struggled with the concept of what the group of fathers were doing. We are only shown the grandma's relationship with her grandson, but it's very obvious that she doesn't know how to handle him. The fathers are so concerned about covering up what their sons did, rather than make them feel the punishment for their crime. We aren't shown any signs of guilt from any of them. This also makes me wonder though—did the grandma turn in her grandson? When the detective character was introduced at the poetry reading, I thought there might be a connection later, but it still doesn't make sense. Why would she turn him in after already paying the money, only to turn around and leave the picture completely? When had she made that decision in relationship to when she called the mother?

One note about spoilers: I tried to keep them out of this post, but don't complain if you haven't seen this one before and it was just ruined. This film is worth watching even if you know the ending, so if you haven't seen it, it's on Netflix.