Think about any films about mental illness and toss them out of your mind. They don’t even begin to get inside that experience. One of my favorite films, “Woman Under the Influence” is an excellent film about what the experience of living and loving someone who is mentally ill is like, and it does help us understand the feeling of vulnerability in knowing that you can’t possibly explain what is going on inside your head to anyone. But this film takes us completely inside the experience. It is unpleasant, it is frightening, it is frustrating, and it makes no sense. It is a waking nightmare that no horror film you’ve ever seen can compare to because it isn’t about tangible fears like pain and death.
The main character in this film is a working class mom who lives in the real world, meaning she is affected by what is going on in the world even if it is beyond her understanding. Corporatism, materialism, terrorism alerts, the war in Iraq… these are all realities that we either filter out, or embrace in a way that we can idealize so that we can conform to the status quo. We’re supposed to consume the information the media spins for us, but we’re not supposed to really think about it. The woman in this film doesn’t think about how much what is happening in the world affects her, but it does affect her nonetheless. The insanity of the world doesn’t merely seep into her brain, it appears almost like cracks. It’s as if the world she has always known is beginning to look like stage scenery and she has sudden jarring fits of seeing cracks in the canvas. I can’t think of any other film out there that really illustrates this in such a subtle yet powerful way. But the insanity of the world isn’t an illness. It is a symptom of our denial of it. Our denial of how the world affects us is the real illness.
Most people seem to really hate this film. It’s slow, there’s little dialogue, little character development, very little of it makes sense, and there is no formula payoff to give us satisfaction at the end. It is fully ambiguous. Surely its appeal will be limited to people who do not require plots or dialogue that’s supposed to tell you what the character is thinking. But even those folks may struggle with a film that confronts us with the emotional and mental effect of being lost in the static of a world that insists that we go along for the ride and not ever really stop and look and think. This is a film about insanity to be sure, and probably will only be recognizable to people who have either found themselves out of control in their life many times, or people who have never ‘fit in’, or people who are afraid of what is unknown but cannot avoid seeking it out even if there are no answers to be found. Perhaps the more deeply in denial we are in life, the more brutal the awakening will be. It’s like looking at Medusa and being turned to stone. It’s something we all fear intrinsically. It is why we look away from the crazy homeless person huddled on the pavement before us. No one starts out in life that way. How many steps are we really, from that person? What happens when the face you see in the mirror no longer seems recognizable to you? What if the forms of entertainment we’re supposed to like, the products that promise esteem and happiness, the religion that promises salvation, even our own families don’t provide us with the solace that we need in life? Where then do we search?
Considering how entrenched society is in enjoying the comfort of denial, and how much indifference most people have to those who are suffering in the world, I’m surprised this film ever even got released, let alone making it to Cannes. I’m happy to see that there are at least a few others who chose not to look away in disgust or anger at something they don’t understand. This movie is not by any means an enjoyable experience, but is does serve as an echo for those who have strayed from the comfort of denial and are always searching for a truth that’s recognizable. Perhaps the room (i.e. the answer) we are searching for isn’t a place or a thing after all. Those whose minds are open will see that this film is fervently about opening our minds. It is a search for the Holy Grail in post-9/11 America. Dare to journey into the dark side if you can.
My grade: 8
