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How is this a dream ? And ' Henry' 's dream ?!!

posted 11 years ago by sherineyousery
5 replies | jump to latest

I enjoy art and movies and many times I just let myself go and watch slices of life without critisizing just to critisize. However, I don't like to let something go without understanding it that much and I fear that there's a message or even something beautiful I missed ..

I watched the movie at first as if it was really a young man who was psychologically troubled and his psychiatrist was helping him. When the ending came, I figured out it can be interpreted as the following:

1- Maybe the accident really happened, Sam and Lila as a doctor and a nurse got and tried to help. They couldn't. It got stuck in Sam's mind and he began to have day dreams and hallucinations, so the whole movie was an interpretation of Sam's life after the accident. This theory is flawed because it wouldn't explain why Lila found herself locked up and what realization she made. It wouldn't be logical either because Sam was just inviting Lila to coffee that night, they couldn't have ended up living together so shortly after, unless this happens after sometime and there's something sad or depressing that made Sam go through it.

2- Maybe Henry survived the accident somehow and then all of the movie really happened. This would be the most reasonable explanation in general but it wouldn't explain many details, like Henry telling the future for example.

3- The most common explanation here on the board which is that Henry saw all say before he died. That's impossible, even in a fiction-based movie because it would be so meaningless. A dying young man hallucinating about his psychiatrist's life , including his life with his girlfriend with details ?!

Please , any insights are welcome. Thank you :)

[–] spinaned 11 years ago

I don't feel like there is a "message" to this film but yes if your gut is telling you there is "something beautiful" here, I strongly agree with it. It took me a lot of thought and multiple viewings but I am convinced this is one of the finer films of the last 10 years.

The most common explanation(#3) is the correct one IMO although at times I've struggled with your alternate explanations also. Keep in mind that the Sam and Lila we see throughout the film and all the other characters(with the exception of the bridge and car segments) are just figments of Henry's psyche. He didn't even know Sam and Lila so almost nothing about them is based in any kind of reality. Sam is basically just a portrayal of the part of Henry's psyche trying to figure out what is happening to him as he lays dying on that bridge. Lila is a projection of the kind of life Henry wanted to have. Athena(the dream version playing Hamlet) is also a wish fulfillment in that she never hooked up with Henry and therefore wasn't killed. They are all in Henry's head and are more Henry than the real people(Sam/Lila/Athena).

Hope this is helpful and good luck.

[–] sherineyousery 11 years ago

Thank you so much :)

[–] Zuider_Zee 11 years ago

I tended to see it as a delusion (or a delirium, if you will, caused by the shock of the accident) or a hallucination.

[–] tribalmaggot 8 years ago

The film is Henrys dying mind trying desperately to make sense of what is happening to him by taking in the information around him and attempting to create a coherent narrative out of it, which breaks down as Henry gets nearer to death.

There is no relationship between Sam and Lilah, but Henry creates one because theyre the people nearest to him and he sees himself as Sam and Lilah as Athena. So he imagines a relationship similar to his own, this is why Sam had the same ring as Henry and was planni g to propose like Henry was. This is also why he asks Lilah to marry him on the bridge.

[–] Xcalat3 (3754) 6 years ago

/The film is Henrys dying mind trying desperately to make sense of what is happening to him by taking in the information around him and attempting to create a coherent narrative out of it, which breaks down as Henry gets nearer to death./

this is it. and they made a very good movie out of it.