What a wonderful movie ..
After watching too many movies, I learnt something very important: the rarest and most beautiful of movies are usually -but not always- unappreciated. Some movies become classics and I have no idea why, and others are simply overlooked when they have great things to teach ..
I have too much to say about this masterpiece, but here's a few points to try to sum up:
1- Judgment, we oven tend to judge without ever having a good thought or a tender approach. We do not care to listen to the story, we just condemn. This movie puts you right there, in an extraordinary unfamiliar situation you would normally judge and condemn anyone in, and tells you, "Deal with it" ..
2- Unconditional love. Too rare in the real world, too rare you'll see a human being loving another with all the demons inside. This is so unfortunate, for unconditional love usually opens the door for us to view the world in a completely different light and perception. What was extraordinary about this movie, is that it showed two types of unconditional love, one romantic and the other parental.
3- Good parenting doesn't mean transforming into a policeman, or choosing what your child should have as a hobby. True parenting means loving your child as he/she is, and most importantly, taking the time to live together. You share a life, you should not just preach about what's right and what's wrong, and I wished people would appreciate how a relationship like this is formed .. So beautifully portrayed when the mother took the time to teach her son about sex, not the bodily fluids and functions, as she says, but rather the feeling .. or when her son takes the time to make her breakfast in bed, rather than the father who just cares his son would not join a dance group so his peers wouldn't think he's gay.
4- True love is something we should value as much as our own lives. And you get a lot more from life when you know what your priorities are. Also, true love doesn't "develop" in weeks or months, sometimes it takes an eye-contact. Decades of living together or hardships do not make for two lovers, it makes for two "partners".
5- Beautiful people come in all sorts of form, and I usually view the most beautiful as the ones who've learnt the most from their pain, the most forgiving and the most "open-hearted" before "open-minded" .. Just pay a little more attention to what the father tells his son at the end of the movie about his ex-wife and you'll "feel" what I am talking about.
6- The movie was realistic, it didn't just alter the ending to fit or to have more of a "feel-good" garbage effect. With some exceptions as leaving the door unlocked sometimes, or all three of them playing outside, I consider the movie didn't lose its grip on reality.
Overall, this movie had some elements from "The bridges of Madison county" and others from "Mud", but still stands on its own as something different, interesting and thought-provoking. The flash-backs to both of their histories didn't matter to me much, because this is basically about unconditional love, so I appreciated the moment when Frank opens the album and sees her pregnant photo but doesn't ask, much more. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about redemption, unconditional love, relationships of many types and what hunger for love and human contact means. Not recommended at all if you didn't enjoy "The bridges of Madison county" and the kind of adult realistic Meryl Streep- drama movies. Very well acted, adapted and directed, I didn't have a dull moment, and the clichés were minimal.
After watching too many movies, I learnt something very important: the rarest and most beautiful of movies are usually -but not always- unappreciated. Some movies become classics and I have no idea why, and others are simply overlooked when they have great things to teach ..
I have too much to say about this masterpiece, but here's a few points to try to sum up:
1- Judgment, we oven tend to judge without ever having a good thought or a tender approach. We do not care to listen to the story, we just condemn. This movie puts you right there, in an extraordinary unfamiliar situation you would normally judge and condemn anyone in, and tells you, "Deal with it" ..
2- Unconditional love. Too rare in the real world, too rare you'll see a human being loving another with all the demons inside. This is so unfortunate, for unconditional love usually opens the door for us to view the world in a completely different light and perception. What was extraordinary about this movie, is that it showed two types of unconditional love, one romantic and the other parental.
3- Good parenting doesn't mean transforming into a policeman, or choosing what your child should have as a hobby. True parenting means loving your child as he/she is, and most importantly, taking the time to live together. You share a life, you should not just preach about what's right and what's wrong, and I wished people would appreciate how a relationship like this is formed .. So beautifully portrayed when the mother took the time to teach her son about sex, not the bodily fluids and functions, as she says, but rather the feeling .. or when her son takes the time to make her breakfast in bed, rather than the father who just cares his son would not join a dance group so his peers wouldn't think he's gay.
4- True love is something we should value as much as our own lives. And you get a lot more from life when you know what your priorities are. Also, true love doesn't "develop" in weeks or months, sometimes it takes an eye-contact. Decades of living together or hardships do not make for two lovers, it makes for two "partners".
5- Beautiful people come in all sorts of form, and I usually view the most beautiful as the ones who've learnt the most from their pain, the most forgiving and the most "open-hearted" before "open-minded" .. Just pay a little more attention to what the father tells his son at the end of the movie about his ex-wife and you'll "feel" what I am talking about.
6- The movie was realistic, it didn't just alter the ending to fit or to have more of a "feel-good" garbage effect. With some exceptions as leaving the door unlocked sometimes, or all three of them playing outside, I consider the movie didn't lose its grip on reality.
Overall, this movie had some elements from "The bridges of Madison county" and others from "Mud", but still stands on its own as something different, interesting and thought-provoking. The flash-backs to both of their histories didn't matter to me much, because this is basically about unconditional love, so I appreciated the moment when Frank opens the album and sees her pregnant photo but doesn't ask, much more. I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about redemption, unconditional love, relationships of many types and what hunger for love and human contact means. Not recommended at all if you didn't enjoy "The bridges of Madison county" and the kind of adult realistic Meryl Streep- drama movies. Very well acted, adapted and directed, I didn't have a dull moment, and the clichés were minimal.