The Science of Sleep OR "I was too busy to come over and slit your wrists, so I just made a movie instead."

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After Eternal Sunshine, I was expecting some ambiguously depressing yet cathartic business. Instead, it seemed to me, the message of the film was "You are fundamentally flawed in a way that will prevent you from ever attaining anything you truly want. You may be funny and creepily charming, but it doesn't matter." And no catharsis whatsoever.

Mind you, I fucking loved it.

Anyone utterly disagree?

― En I See Kay. (EstrangedNative), Sunday, 1 October 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

I totally agree about the lack of catharsis, so much so that I don't know if I could apply the moral that you found. The characters were so specifically goofy, that my only connection to it came from my own memories of similar times--and it's totally fucking awesome that he can dredge those memories out of you, but he never really did anything with them, didn't really turn them on their head or free you from them.

― Devin King (Devin King), Monday, 2 October 2006 01:26 (nineteen years ago)

"You" as in the viewer?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 2 October 2006 01:36 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah. Sorry bout that.

― Devin King (Devin King), Monday, 2 October 2006 02:01 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

If you personally identify with the protagonist to the point of confusing him with "me," then perhaps it's a depressing film. I saw it as a story about individual characters, rather than a general statement about the futility of nerd-love, and it didn't make me wanna slit my wrists at all. It was charming and distinctive, but it didn't really move me much.

― Adam Beales (Pye Poudre), Friday, 3 November 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

Or alternatively, your nerd flaws may be charming but aren't necessarily congruent with someone else's charming nerd flaws. I didn't find it depressing at all... it's my fave of everything I've seen in the second half of 2006.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 13 November 2006 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

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