I haven't watched this film since 2007, where Dan and I saw it in the theatre. I bought it to replace some of our stolen DVDs. It is the same beautiful film that I remember.
You should see it. At first it sounds depressing, a man who cannot communicate with the world, a soul who can only blink one eye, but listens to people spell the alphabet, then blinks as they say the letter he's thinking of, and slowly, slowly, he speaks sentences.
Yet it has really beautiful themes and frightening, real world themes as well.
-An aging parent, stuck in an apartment at age 92, trying to remember what he wanted to say to his dying son
-A mistress, the lover, who is unable to get over her fear of seeing Jean in his paralyzed state, talking on speaker phone to Jean as the doteful mother of his children listens on and translates what Jean wants to say
-A friend exchanging a plane seat with another friend, only to have the plane be hijacked, resulting in his friend spending 4 years in a captive in Beirut
Yes, it's not the happiest movie, but it is so real. It's reassuring to know that not everyone has the perfect cookie-cutter life. People have real and unexpressed regrets and real accomplishments that the rest of the world may ignore.
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