Much has been said about how hard this film is to understand. I didn’t find it hard but I am psychologically attuned just as another might be mathematically. (I found “Inception” a lot harder.) Here’s my take on postmodern Paul Anderson’s latest offering.
The film starts with flowing water in the wake of a ship, an image that is returned to at intervals, as though marking chapter breaks or reminding us how we are on a “ship of fools.” Freddie, a young man who’s been to war, is mostly drunken and a bundle of raw nerves. He’s at the same time shy, sensitive, modest, and aggressive. In the beginning he lies on the sand near the outline of a woman, whom he’s tried to fuck (drunkenly); this image is returned to in the end showing how Freddie yearns for love. Read More
The film starts with flowing water in the wake of a ship, an image that is returned to at intervals, as though marking chapter breaks or reminding us how we are on a “ship of fools.” Freddie, a young man who’s been to war, is mostly drunken and a bundle of raw nerves. He’s at the same time shy, sensitive, modest, and aggressive. In the beginning he lies on the sand near the outline of a woman, whom he’s tried to fuck (drunkenly); this image is returned to in the end showing how Freddie yearns for love. Read More