I watched the film yesterday and I was surprised by the many negative reviews this film has received. I think most of them didn't really catch what the film is about so I felt it would have been useful to share my thoughts in the hope that they'll help the ones that didn't get it to better understand this movie.
This is a movie about boredom and existential discomfort, about the subtle effects of a way of living that forces you to slowly disconnect from yourself making you every day less receptive to the richness of experiences. This is probably something most of the people feel at some point in their life and to which I surely can relate. When does it start evolving? It does as soon as you are alone with your pain and you are forced to fully embrace it. The moment in which this happens is getting every day harder to achieve because there are an increasing number of things to keep you distracted from your condition. Johnny Marco have virtually limitless resources to avoid this confrontation, and this is his biggest misfortune. The ability to get whatever he think he needs prevents him from realizing he is slowly becoming numb to life. His final breakdown is not the usual unrealistic breakdown we are used to see in most movies today, but it's a believable manifestation of the feeling of a man that just realized something is wrong but that lacks of the self understanding needed to get what it really is. The father-daughter relationship here is just the match that ignites the small fire needed to unwittingly regain enough sensitivity to finally perceive the top of the emotional iceberg that's hiding underneath. The relationship with his daughter doesn't change him drastically, they don't unrealistically find the perfect way of communicating but they do menage to find a very basic one to the best of their abilities, and it is enough for Johnny to feel the difference when his daughter is gone and he is back to his previous life. When in the end, in the middle of his breakdown, he says on the phone "I'm not even a person" he is right, because what defines a person is his/her ability to experience, to be fully receptive to the whole spectrum of emotions.
I've read a lot of reviews saying this film is slow and boring but I think they are missing that it is supposed to be. It is not only boring, it is uncomfortably boring, you need to beg the director to cut to the next scene to understand the level of Johnny's self disconnection, you can't stand watching 60 seconds of him waiting for his mask to dry, how does he menage to bear that for 45 minutes with his face completely covered in some sticky substance breathing only through two small holes?
In the end I agree this is really not a film for everyone, but I do think that it is about something that everyone can relate to someway or another, and if you are able to make the connection you are surely going to find it food for thought.
This is a movie about boredom and existential discomfort, about the subtle effects of a way of living that forces you to slowly disconnect from yourself making you every day less receptive to the richness of experiences. This is probably something most of the people feel at some point in their life and to which I surely can relate. When does it start evolving? It does as soon as you are alone with your pain and you are forced to fully embrace it. The moment in which this happens is getting every day harder to achieve because there are an increasing number of things to keep you distracted from your condition. Johnny Marco have virtually limitless resources to avoid this confrontation, and this is his biggest misfortune. The ability to get whatever he think he needs prevents him from realizing he is slowly becoming numb to life. His final breakdown is not the usual unrealistic breakdown we are used to see in most movies today, but it's a believable manifestation of the feeling of a man that just realized something is wrong but that lacks of the self understanding needed to get what it really is. The father-daughter relationship here is just the match that ignites the small fire needed to unwittingly regain enough sensitivity to finally perceive the top of the emotional iceberg that's hiding underneath. The relationship with his daughter doesn't change him drastically, they don't unrealistically find the perfect way of communicating but they do menage to find a very basic one to the best of their abilities, and it is enough for Johnny to feel the difference when his daughter is gone and he is back to his previous life. When in the end, in the middle of his breakdown, he says on the phone "I'm not even a person" he is right, because what defines a person is his/her ability to experience, to be fully receptive to the whole spectrum of emotions.
I've read a lot of reviews saying this film is slow and boring but I think they are missing that it is supposed to be. It is not only boring, it is uncomfortably boring, you need to beg the director to cut to the next scene to understand the level of Johnny's self disconnection, you can't stand watching 60 seconds of him waiting for his mask to dry, how does he menage to bear that for 45 minutes with his face completely covered in some sticky substance breathing only through two small holes?
In the end I agree this is really not a film for everyone, but I do think that it is about something that everyone can relate to someway or another, and if you are able to make the connection you are surely going to find it food for thought.