I’m coming back to this thread having just seen the movie and really enjoyed it. femtogrammar’s remarks about the emotional core of the movie partially resonate with me, in that there’s a strong thread of making the active choice to live one’s life as opposed to being swept along in it. I would elaborate that I think this is a movie about gaining perspective in the face of struggle. I also think the sci-fi action elements are quite effective in communicating this theme as well as being very technically well executed.
Basically, each act of the movie shows Evelyn in a different stage of awareness. When we meet her, she feels trapped and powerless in her life, unable to see past the framework she has constructed for herself of needing to please her father and manage her husband and daughter. The second act begins the sci-fi chicanery, showing her that she can be more than what she is if she can only break out of the mindset she is trapped in (do something you would never think to do, and you can become a different person, one who would think to do that!). With this she is able to begin exerting actual agency in her life; fighting back against people who are trying to control her.
Unfortunately the insight is incomplete, and as we move into act three, Joy confronts Evelyn with nihilism, and despite having gained agency, Evelyn still lacks purpose. She is defeated and “dies” across the multiverse to variously literal degrees. However her husband is able to help her find a breakthrough; in his own way he has created meaning for himself in kindness and she learns to follow his example. The action changes at this point and Evelyn defeats the grunts by helping them self-actualize as well so they no longer have reason to fight her instead of overpowering them. Finally, she is able to save Joy (the name is very apropos) by acknowledging that life will always contain struggle, but love makes it worthwhile to hold on.
So the thesis here isn’t anything revolutionary, really. It’s standard existentialist stuff. The reason I think it works so well for me and many other watchers is that the makers of this movie clearly intimately understand the emotional grammar of film. The constant cuts from one universe to another would make the movie totally unwatchable except that each one is carefully juxtaposed to be emotionally contiguous. The performances show a similar level of mastery, with facial expressions and body language being carefully translated from one shot to the next. Thanks to this care for continuity, even when the action scenes aren’t obviously advancing the purely mechanical elements of the plot, they are still generally contributing to the emotional arc of the film by creating tension and giving Evelyn an obstacle to struggle against and gain self-knowledge in the process.
Visual elements are carefully incorporated as well. One example I liked is the karaoke machine receipt. It’s established early and repeatedly appears in the frame. It has a heavy black circle on it which clearly echoes The Bagel, but it’s not empty. At the center is the karaoke machine, which in my reading is a symbol of love. The very first shot of the film shows the family singing karaoke together and sharing a moment of happiness and love, reflected in the circular black mirror. We are introduced to the conflict when this vision snaps away and the mirror shows an empty table covered in receipts; a literal loss of perspective. This is just one motif but I think it shows the level of attention given to making each frame count; we get a symbolic representation of both the conflict and the resolution within second of starting the movie.
I’ve let this comment get much too long and I suspect you won’t be swayed too much. Hopefully I’ve at least killed some of the mystery in my rambling. I liked the movie because it has a very clear emotional heart and uses a lot of technical prowess to deliver on that heart.
I’m coming back to this thread having just seen the movie and really enjoyed it. femtogrammar’s remarks about the emotional core of the movie partially resonate with me, in that there’s a strong thread of making the active choice to live one’s life as opposed to being swept along in it. I would elaborate that I think this is a movie about gaining perspective in the face of struggle. I also think the sci-fi action elements are quite effective in communicating this theme as well as being very technically well executed.
Basically, each act of the movie shows Evelyn in a different stage of awareness. When we meet her, she feels trapped and powerless in her life, unable to see past the framework she has constructed for herself of needing to please her father and manage her husband and daughter. The second act begins the sci-fi chicanery, showing her that she can be more than what she is if she can only break out of the mindset she is trapped in (do something you would never think to do, and you can become a different person, one who would think to do that!). With this she is able to begin exerting actual agency in her life; fighting back against people who are trying to control her.
Unfortunately the insight is incomplete, and as we move into act three, Joy confronts Evelyn with nihilism, and despite having gained agency, Evelyn still lacks purpose. She is defeated and “dies” across the multiverse to variously literal degrees. However her husband is able to help her find a breakthrough; in his own way he has created meaning for himself in kindness and she learns to follow his example. The action changes at this point and Evelyn defeats the grunts by helping them self-actualize as well so they no longer have reason to fight her instead of overpowering them. Finally, she is able to save Joy (the name is very apropos) by acknowledging that life will always contain struggle, but love makes it worthwhile to hold on.
So the thesis here isn’t anything revolutionary, really. It’s standard existentialist stuff. The reason I think it works so well for me and many other watchers is that the makers of this movie clearly intimately understand the emotional grammar of film. The constant cuts from one universe to another would make the movie totally unwatchable except that each one is carefully juxtaposed to be emotionally contiguous. The performances show a similar level of mastery, with facial expressions and body language being carefully translated from one shot to the next. Thanks to this care for continuity, even when the action scenes aren’t obviously advancing the purely mechanical elements of the plot, they are still generally contributing to the emotional arc of the film by creating tension and giving Evelyn an obstacle to struggle against and gain self-knowledge in the process.
Visual elements are carefully incorporated as well. One example I liked is the karaoke machine receipt. It’s established early and repeatedly appears in the frame. It has a heavy black circle on it which clearly echoes The Bagel, but it’s not empty. At the center is the karaoke machine, which in my reading is a symbol of love. The very first shot of the film shows the family singing karaoke together and sharing a moment of happiness and love, reflected in the circular black mirror. We are introduced to the conflict when this vision snaps away and the mirror shows an empty table covered in receipts; a literal loss of perspective. This is just one motif but I think it shows the level of attention given to making each frame count; we get a symbolic representation of both the conflict and the resolution within second of starting the movie.
I’ve let this comment get much too long and I suspect you won’t be swayed too much. Hopefully I’ve at least killed some of the mystery in my rambling. I liked the movie because it has a very clear emotional heart and uses a lot of technical prowess to deliver on that heart.