I really like this movie. It has been a long time since there has been a movie that made me feel the urge to write a film review.
When I started watching it for the first time, if I just looked at it from the perspective of a boy Jake and his girlfriend Lucy going to meet his parents, I would think it was a weird thriller. Of course, the director is very clever and constantly cut into the shots and images of the old Jake throughout the ROAD trip. So at the beginning, combined with the title of the movie, I mistakenly thought that the girl finally ended all this, and the story of Jake's lifelong depression after breaking up with Jake.
However, it was not until the end of the film that the heroine of the film was only the second personality imagined by Jake. When I swipe it again, all the inexplicable, all seemingly meaningless dialogues begin to make MAKE SENSE. The director used a very clever approach to expose JAKE's childhood. It can be said that except for the editing shots of the elderly JAKE, all other shots are just fantasy images that exist in JAKE's mind. So no matter what LUCY or himself, or his parents or anyone who has appeared, said, it was actually what he wanted to say.
At the beginning of the film, they passed an abandoned house with a swing at the door. Jake explained that it may be that adults want children to have something to play with when they are busy. This also directly implied Jake's lonely childhood, indicating that adults are always busy and think that Jake can spend time by entertaining himself in toys. And did not really love him and pay attention to his growth. The director repeated this in the story of the pig on the farm. Parents are always very busy, just throw food into the fence and let the pigs fill themselves. Until one day it was discovered that the pig's back half was completely hollowed out by maggots. In fact, what I want to talk about here is also JAKE's mental state, which has gradually developed from a healthy and normal child to a distorted and introverted personality.
When Jake returned home, he was actually very resistant. This so-called home was cold and sick. It can't bring him any warmth, so he would rather go to the ranch than go straight upstairs. And the parents dragged on for a long, long time before going downstairs to greet Jake, which is probably a real scene that happened in life. They completely ignored Jake's feelings.
Then came the scene at the dinner table where the heroine LUCY showed her paintings to Jake's parents, but it was obvious that Jake's father didn't understand art, and he interrupted the heroine at will. At the same time, there was a derogatory meaning in it. And the mother's slip of the tongue: Quantum maidens and subsequent quarrels about calling JAKE sissy when preparing meals in the kitchen also show that Jake sensitive was sentimental since childhood, and the artistic cells of Jake sensitive were strangled in such a family. Parents just think jake is sissy. So Jake locked his sensitivity together with those early paintings into the basement of the deepest subconscious. Another detail is the scratches on the door of the basement. He himself answered that most of them were caught by the dog JIM. In fact, it implied that some of them should be traces left by his parents during the corporal punishment.
The dog JIM of the jake family is also part of the incarnation of jake. I believe that in such a family without warmth, the best friend of childhood jake is this dog. There are some interesting details: the dog keeps shaking his head like obsessive-compulsive disorder after playing in the snow, and the girlfriend Lucy just jokingly said that the dog is smelly and dirty. But Jake quickly apologized as if instinctively. Later, the heroine asked why there weren’t any toys in the house? It can be seen here that JAKE when I was a child was just because of the child's nature to get toys everywhere and play everywhere, but when I met an obsessive-compulsive mother who loves cleanliness, he must be very neat and clean. Jake's dog is actually the animal self in Jake's childhood.
When the girlfriends finished their meal and they drove back on the road, they discussed a movie. All discussions about the heroine in the movie should allude to Jake's later reflection on his life's analysis of his mother. A young mother should be very controlling and very beautiful. Trying hard to play the role of a mother, and at the same time, the mother wants to please everyone, including her husband. As I grow older, my humor is gone. My mother just said tiredly because it was worn out) And my mother has always been in such a setting, childhood jake watched his beautiful mother be consumed by life. . "Fast train to hell". The analysis of the second half of the movie seems to be analyzing Jake himself. Obviously, my mother is spoiled for JAKE. Feed him sweets constantly. In the self-reflection behind jake, it is very possible that the mother's doting on him just hopes that he will never grow up, so that his mother can play a role that seems to be constantly giving. But in the end, Lucy pointedly pointed out the characteristics of mother "cold and sweet". And JAKE himself admitted that he was actually deceived by the kindness disguised by his mother.
When it comes to the scene at the dessert shop, it can be seen that Jake's entire adulthood was spent in the sneers and mockery of beautiful girls. The only girl, like JAKE, is also isolated and laughed at. Can have some spiritual and emotional resonance with him. And the girl said to LUCY softly, you can just stay here. Just stay in this few good memories. "You don't have to move forward"
After arriving at school, it was actually the moment when the old Jake began to face his inner fantasy. Through the direct dialogue between the elderly jake and Lucy, the audience restored the truth about the heroine Lucy. They met in a bar, but the real Lucy thought Jake was a voyeuristic pervert. They have never had any beginning "nothing happen" and all this has been 40 years. I think JAKE has been dreaming of such a perfect girlfriend, and eventually he has to learn to accept and say goodbye to his fantasy character. In the end JAKE chose to accept his own reality and chose to commit suicide in the car on this cold snowy night.
Before committing suicide, Jake said at the award ceremony of his life, "only in the mysterious equation of love, that logical reason can be found", "only in the mysterious equation of love, that logical reason can be found." A little bit of love. And the characters he fantasizes love himself, so Jake said "you are the reason I am" and Jake's heart is also constantly struggling in the fantasy world of personality and the real world. Intellectually, he knows that he shouldn't live in fantasy, but emotionally, he can only get precious love in his own fantasy. When everything came to an end, the real jake died in a car filled with thick snow.
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