This is a lovely little film. And by little I just mean low budget, low key, not small in any patronising way.
It is quite complex, building up slowly. It took me a while to spot that whenever Eddie Marsan's character went out onto the street there was never anyone else in shot. So subtly we get to see how totally alone this man is.
He represents the safety net that society offers. Die alone and there will at least be one person who notices. We employ him to care so that we don't have to.
I wondered if he did the job because he had always been alone himself, or if he became more alone over time because of his job. I don't remember there being many clues to that.
Towards the end, when he is working on his last case, he clearly starts to live himself (again?). And the contrasts are portrayed beautifully.
Just when I thought we were heading for a happy ending there is a surprise. I guess I should have seen it coming (looking back there were plenty of hints) but I didn't.
I thought it wasn't fair at first, but it just had to end like that. It moved me to tears.
And it made me think, not just about people who have died alone, but people who are living alone right now. How can we fix that? Why do we find it so easy to not care about our neighbors any more?
No comments:
Post a Comment