An Unfinished Life

A loving mother (Jennifer Lopez as Jean Gilkyson) packs up and leaves after her partner becomes abusive (Damian Lewis as Gary Winston), her daughter happy to leave things behind (Becca Gardner as Griff Gilkyson), as they head back to the wilds of Wyoming. 

There the child's grandfather awaits (Robert Redford as Einar Gilkyson) and is something of a grouchy mcgrouchersons, but he means well and sticks up for the downtrodden even if he's difficult to get along with.

His partner (Morgan Freeman as Mitch Bradley) was mauled by a bear and is now generally confined to his belovéd cabin, not blindly seeking rash vengeance, preferring to let the seasoned bear live in peace.

The bear's still around in fact and is eventually captured and then encaged, not in the most hospitable confines, it's sad to think he's no longer roaming free.

Jean and Einar are at odds because Jean accidentally killed his son, after falling asleep at the wheel, he tries but can't honestly forgive her.

She finds work in the old rugged town as 'lil Griff takes a shine to gramps, as he teaches her old school ranching ways, chartered chillin', inchoate enrichment.

But something doesn't sit quite right about that bear's sullen incarceration. 

A plan is hatched seeking animate freedom.

Even though he has quite the temper.

It's a strange mix in An Unfinished Life between different types of violence, on the one hand Jean clearly has to leave her relationship, no one should put up with that kind of nonsense.

But on the other an injured stalwart goes to great lengths to forgive a bear, it's possible he or she may strike again, but are they just functioning according to instinct?

I was happy to see a sympathetic attitude kindly applied to misunderstood bear kind, grizzlies used to range across so much more of North America, and now they don't have very much land left.

It's clear the human has had opportunities to change and definitely should have known better, it's different for a wild daring animal who may freak out if you suddenly surprise it.

Still though, if a bear strikes once and there's no strict penalty, what happens if it strikes again?, if you could transport the bear into the wilds of Northern Canada and Québec, however, there won't be many people around (although bears have been known to travel vast distances back to their original hangouts after being relocated).

The vast majority of the time the bear won't strike according to the books I've read, I've seen several while out and about as well, I've kept my distance and never had any problems.

If only bears were never grouchy or somehow aware of the danger they're in.

I truly believe many of them are.

And that either way they've never meant us much harm. 

Since our ancestors landed! 😜

The Lost Daughter

It's strange how much time I used to spend going to the cinema. In fact it's not strange at all, it was perfectly normal, everything about pandemic existence being strange, but it's been going on for so long that it's starting to feel normal.

That's depressing. And even with the vaccines, there's no end in sight.

Ah well, no use in dwelling, that's counterproductive, and at least we have vaccines and boosters available in Canada and Québec, and the risk of hospitalization is greatly decreased if you get them, I recommend getting the vaccine, getting it soon, I suppose it goes without saying but vaccines help prevent you from getting sick, especially if you get the virus, which is still spreading rapidly, and isn't showing any signs of letting up.

But I used to spend around 8 hours a week carefully or carelessly choosing films in cinemas and travelling back and forth to see them, sometimes while stopping for lunch, it was a great way to pass the time.

Now I've got all the time in the world just to choose two films a week and watch them on my computer or television, and it still seems like I have to find the time, how did I ever come up with all the extra hours?

It's certainly much less engaging watching films at home although there's an endless supply available, still, films are meant to be seen in theatres, and it's kind of lame always watching them on a smaller screen.

No end to the variety, however, and I'm super happy there's a Criterion channel, Criterions used to be really expensive films that you had to buy, if you really wanted to see one and couldn't find it at the library. 

I'm not sure if Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter has resonant artistic flair, but it certainly leaves an impression, and is like nothing else I've ever seen.

It's about an unappealing dull grouch who decides to go on vacation, during the off-season in a resort town, as locals celebrate liberation (Olivia Colman/Jessie Buckley as Leda).

Her ornery disposition and assertive dismissals ensure she doesn't make any friends, she's also generally annoyed when people talk to her, no matter how harmless or well-meaning.

She's plagued by haunting remembrances of the daughters she left behind to pursue her career, the surrounding carefree families at play only serving to vex her further.

She proceeds to steal one of their dolls and even buys it a new fancy outfit, and refuses to return it or just leave it on the beach even after a campaign is launched for days to find it.

The Lost Daughter's total lack of utility and uncanny investigation of gloomy self-obsession, lugubriously generates pathological charm through disorienting morose unabashed stern vision.

It's like a campy intellectual film that leaves you free to discern and judge, is it critiquing cantankerous agency or oddly celebrating unattached dysfunction?

Does she feel bad about not feeling bad about never having tried to cultivate feelings?

I think there's Criterion potential.

Resort towns are fun in the offseason. 

Il pleuvait des oiseaux (And the Birds Rained Down)

An aged free spirit spent her life under lock and key, now a relative passes, and she departs to pay respect.

Her nephew's open-minded and understands she could use a break, and happens to know a secluded location where feisty seniors get by.

The male pair's dialled in off the grid and have been for some time, one prone to grouchy outbursts, the other settled like humble pie.

Their lifestyle doesn't easily accommodate others, remote bush living requiring steady supplies, but they're as independent as they are resourceful, in regular contact with sustained sustenance.

Or Marie-Desneige's (Andrée Lachapelle) nephew anyways, who ATVs them up provisions from time to time, stopping to chat and relax lakeside, not so bad this side of February.

An inquisitive photojournalist comes calling with fresh sets of awkward questions, and since they have no interest in being found, they aren't as willing to respond as she had hoped.

Confrontation maladroitly abounds, as love blooms, identity blossoms, and angst prognosticates.

Il pleuvait des oiseaux.

Off the beaten track.

The urge to rigorously classify each and every individual is expressly resisted within, desires to live untethered, beyond, contesting traditional arrangements.

Practical argument may dispute its chill romanticism, but not without its characters having had their honest say.

Arboreally inclined foresty fomentation.

There's something to be said for the offbeat alternative rough and torchlit tumble, keeps you innocently aware through mature spiritual reference.

You have to appreciate what you have as opposed to imagining what you can get, even if online shopping's levelling the field, although that doesn't apply in this instance.

Note: the city is also amazing.

I love it when I meet people who are cyberspatially detached.

I can't do it myself, I admit I love the online world, but there are certain freedoms that persist if you spend your life offline, almost as if you don't exist, like you can't be tracked or followed.

Like a ghost or a bear, a bohemian, a spy.

A classical romantic.

Less prone to inane distraction.

If you somehow read this even though you live offline, consider that if you have no online footprint, you're perfect for spectral espionage.

Bu if iTunes disappears and therefore stops selling music, where do you go to buy music? Will AppleMusic be the only option? It's like downloading music from the internet for free wiped out millions for emerging artists, and record stores slowly merged into iTunes, but if iTunes stops selling music, and you still want to own albums, even if you can listen to them for free on AppleMusic, will record stores bounce back, and will those millions be made available once more?

It's cool to see people like Neil Young and Keith Richards with millions.

Can't say they didn't earn it.

Almost as if downloading music for free was ironically financed by the right wing establishment, to silence active protest, or at least make it much less comfortable to do so.

Il pleuvait des oiseaux generates aged pluck to state "it's never too late."

Cool characters and convincing situations.

A thoughtful narrative blend.

Provocative ego clash.

With love.