Day 170: Retreat

A couple head back to a cottage on a remote island that they visited when they were younger and happier. Along comes a man who is covered in blood and he tells them there’s a contagious disease roaring through the world and they have to lock themselves inside. But they have difficulty believing him.

Even if nothing else happened in the film, the fact that they decided to go to a cottage on a remote island when they clearly find it difficult to be around each other was just not a good idea. There’s no escape from each other there. I’ve always thought that if you’re having difficulties in your relationship then you need a bit of space so you can think clearly. If you’re together all the time (and the only people for miles around) then you can’t work anything out because you’ll just keep running into the same problems. But that would’ve been peachy compared to what did happen. Kate (Thandie Newton) saw Jack (Jamie Bell) stumbling around outside and when she and Martin (Cillian Murphy) take off to help him, they see he is covered in blood so they drag him back to the cottage. When he wakes up he tells them about this highly infectious disease that is spreading through the world and he takes charge, saying they should lock themselves inside. While Kate and Martin are both reluctant to follow him, they’re scared of the possibility of catching this killer infection and so they relent. Their time locked up is fraught with tension and it eventually leads to them attacking Jack. It turns out that Jack is the carrier of the infection and he’s infected them, and he only told them there was one outside because he couldn’t let them go around infecting other people.

It was interesting to see their doubts and fear about what Jack told them. He’s aggressive and frightening so the two have difficulty believing he’s there to help them. I get that he had to be a bit of a bastard so that we thought he was some crazy murderer but if this was to have happened in real life, if he was just nice to them and not threatening them with guns and whatnot, it would’ve all gone a lot better. I mean, sure, Kate and Martin would’ve still died but they wouldn’t have been terrified beforehand.

6/10

Day 141: Girl With A Pearl Earring

A young maid comes to work in the Vermeer household and becomes the subject of one of his most famous paintings. Griet (Scarlett Johannson) helps Vermeer with his work and his wife is devastated with jealousy.

While I can usually appreciate a slow-paced film, this was a little too slow for me. I’m not sure the acting was strong enough to hold my interest for long periods of time, particularly when they are supposed to be communicating with a look. The relationship between Colin Firth and Scarlett Johannson wasn't believable, there seemed to be no chemistry there whatsoever. I realise the reserved nature of the characters would’ve been true to the time and situation and it’s not that I was expecting sudden declarations of love or anything but it did all seem rather plain and dull. Perhaps I needed to be in the right mood for this film, I’m sure if I was then I’d give it a higher rating and would’ve enjoyed it more.

5/10

Day 51: Inception

Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team are employed by very rich people to spend their time in the dreams of others in order to steal valuable secrets. Their newest employer, Saito (Ken Watanabe), is a little different. He wants them to go into the mind of a business competitor and plant an idea. That is so difficult and in order to do so the team risk ending up spending the rest of their lives in limbo. Cobb’s projection of his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), threatens to destroy their mission at every step and it puts the whole team in constant danger.

To be able to see into someone’s mind, to be able to walk through their memories and their experiences and their thoughts, just seems like such a beautiful thing. It’s not about being nosy but more because people rarely tell you exactly what they’re thinking, or if they do, they filter it so it’s better for you to listen to. The ideal for me would just be unadulterated honesty at all times. Truly knowing someone seems close to an impossibility because the distance between who they are and who they project themselves to be is massive. In order to know someone, they have to close the gap. That is it for me, I don’t know a lot of things about me or anyone for that matter but I know that: I want to close the gap.

You know, I thought it would be amazing to be able to dream so well that you could actually have a whole life with someone. Or maybe not even a whole life, but to imagine someone so clearly that it’s almost as if they are there with you. But it clearly would never even touch on how wonderful it would be to actually have it in reality. Like is said in the film, you can never imagine a person completely. People are so complex and their every thought and action is influenced by a myriad of different and sometimes contradictory forces. How could you ever hope to dream of that person in their entirety? Sure, you could make an adequate copy and maybe you’d be happy enough. But it would never be them, not really. Imagination is powerful but it can’t be everything.

In the hotel room, Mal accuses Ariadne (Ellen Page) of not understanding what is going on because she has never felt what it’s like to be a lover, “to be half of a whole”. For me, I don’t believe anyone you are with should be seen as your other half. I think you should be complete yourself so that anyone who is with you gets to share in who you are, not make you who you are. If they leave, does that make you incomplete again? It’s all so fragile, I just refuse to believe that it should be the right way of things. You are not defined by the people in your life, you are defined by you. By being the truest version of yourself. I just can’t believe that people are incomplete and it’s only through being with someone else that they can be whole. That seems so sad.

It must just be the hardest thing when someone you love kills themselves. Especially when they do it right in front of you. Mal completely believes that this world is not her reality and she needs to die in order to get back to where she and Cobb built their lives together. And Cobb put the idea in her head without meaning for it to cause this much destruction and so he feels guilty forever after. He keeps going back into his dreams in order to be with her but he can never get past his guilt, and he does know that she isn’t real and it breaks his heart that he can’t go back and fix what he did. But he does get to return to his home and his children. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a dream or not because he gets to finally be with them again and that’s what he has wanted for so long. This is his reality now.

Leonardo DiCaprio is such a brilliant actor. His eyes just slay me in every film, they are so believable. When I was watching the film, I was utterly convinced he was Dom Cobb and that he loved Mal with a passion I can’t even imagine. You just get lost in his portrayal of his characters and it’s lovely to be a part of.

I always forget how much I love this film. It’s just so beautiful. I love when the café and the street are exploding around Cobb and Ariadne, it’s such a great scene. The whole film is just lovely to watch.

9/10

Day 5: Breakfast On Pluto

The film today centres on Patricia ‘Kitten’ Braden (Cillian Murphy), a young trans lady searching for her mother against the backdrop of Irish turmoil. Abandoned as a baby at the priest’s (Liam Neeson) door, the priest sees to it that the child has a home. But in that home she’s rejected because of who she is and so she leaves for London to find her mother. Not particularly easy when all you have to go on are a name and the memory of someone saying she looks like Mitzi Gaynor. The majority of the men she meets along the way are awful and exploitative but some (like the womble Brendan Gleeson, the police officer, or the philosophical bikers) try to help. While the conflict in Ireland isn’t given the heaviest of attention it is used well throughout and couples well with the main story.

After being screamed at by an angry prostitute, Kitten jumps in the car of a seemingly well-meaning man. They chat about what she’s doing and she says she’s looking for her mother, the Phantom Lady. She calls her that so the whole thing sounds like a story that’s happening to someone else. Why? “Because otherwise I might cry and never stop.” The whole film Kitten has this attitude that shouts that she doesn’t care because she’s going to be who she’s going to be and she’s happy with that. But at the heart of it is someone who is desperately lonely and really wants their Mum. She’s constantly rejected, but the first ever to reject her was her mother. And she wants so much to see her perhaps to know she wouldn’t be rejected now, had her mother known the woman she’d become. Despite always making sure her identity is clear, she hides behind a fake name in order to meet her and never once admits to who she is. The encounter isn’t long but she comes away finally meeting the person who gave her up. She is married and has children so to all intents and purposes she appears to have moved on past the birth of her first child. Kitten knows who her father is, however, and knows he tried his hardest to help her so she returns to him. In the face of adversity given who Kitten is, her father doesn’t let it bother him even when he loses his home as a result. He stuck with her when her mother could not and so she’s given up the dream of the Phantom Lady for the reality of the person who stayed.

I still never understand those who react negatively to others (be they trans, queer, etc.). Why is it so difficult to accept the person before you as they present themselves? Why must you demand they be different? The common consensus is fear, the type caused by not understanding. I guess that makes sense. Someone told me today that God has a higher plan for all of us and that he loves everyone unconditionally. Now I just don’t believe that for a second. What is his plan for all this hate and violence? All the bloodshed caused by a lack of unconditional love from his very own followers? Where there are people, there is hate. They just can’t help themselves when it comes to being truly awful to others and I really hope we can somehow escape from it. But I don’t see it happening soon.

Really enjoyed the film despite having very little to say about it. Would watch many times.

8/10