How about this crazy theory I just thought of... SPOILERS

SPOILERS


REAL STUFF:


- Henry was a psychiatrist.

- Lila was a painter, an art teacher and suffered from depression.

- Sam studied art, was a painter and was obsessed with Raveur. Sam had murdered his parents before, suffered from depression and delusion. He was also Lila's student. He and Lila began having a relationship.

- Henry and Beth were co-workers.

- Sam was Beth's patient.

- Lila was Henry's patient.

- Lila began cheating on Sam with Henry, she leaves Sam in order to live with Henry.

- Henry had an affair with Beth. But Beth is pissed off because she wants Henry all for herself, while for Henry it was just a passing fling.

- Sam became Henry's patient, after Beth quit because Henry was never gonna be entirely just for her, since he had a relationship with Lila.

- Lila suicided cutting her wrists due to depression and when she found out about Henry cheating on her. This would explain Lila saying at the beginning that the cuts on her wrists are from another lifetime.

- Now since Lila had killed herself, Henry was so pissed at the whole situation, he didn't want to know a thing about Beth, she couldn't take it, she did herself in. Beth committed suicide with pills overdose, heroin and booze. I put heroin because it looked so in the following scene after Beth's when McGregor receives a shot besides it makes it more tragic hehe

- Henry felt so bad for Sam, he really wanted to help him, specially because Henry himself was involved in all this mess.

- Sam began stalking a waitress called Athena. Though they had no relationship at all and she in fact quit her job due to Sam's harassing, Sam had bought her a ring to propose to her.

- Henry tried to help Sam as well, but failed, once again.

- Sam went to the bridge and burned all his paintings that were on his car and committed suicide by shooting himself with a gun on the bridge, just like Raveur did, 'cause he's f-ukin' deranged.

- Henry took Sam's engagement ring before the burial and kept it.

Now, some time goes by, and then:

- Henry is now available, begins a relationship with Athena, whom he met while helping Sam with his issues.

- Henry had an accident on the same bridge while driving with his parents and his new girlfriend, Athena, to whom he was going to propose marriage that night with the same ring Sam was going to propose the same broad.

- Henry enters to this delusional mind state because of near-death experience (In spanish the film's title is "The Threshold" ("El Umbral") This word in spanish is strongly connected to the near-death experience because it is supposed to be like it when you are "entering" death, I'm not sure if it also works this way in english language)
Anyway, while Sam's and Lila's ghosts (I'll call them ghosts to make it simplier) approach to Henry, they're already dead, thus they don't know each other anymore. That'd explain also why Henry's father doesn't seem to know Henry during the film, only later...

- Henry sees his former patient and girlfriend (Lila) and former patient (Sam) and so guilt overwhelms him, thus he says: "forgive me". As he lies dying....begins to "dream".....(I'll call it a dream to make it simplier)


THE DREAM STUFF:


- Henry sees himself as Sam on the dream (most part of the movie, not thoroughly perhaps) Henry sees everything through Sam's eyes, let us put it so. So now Henry is Ewan McGregor and Sam is Ryan Gosling. This would explain the switching places shots between them (specially when McGregor grabs Gosling while struggling about Olive the dog and her mother and you can see them switching places for a second)

This would explain also why Lila calls Mcgregor "Henry" and why the mother think McGregor is her son Henry.
It'd also explain the good relationship between Henry's father and McGregor (he even asks about the marriage proposal between Athena and Henry, don't forget McGregor being Henry on the dream).
It'd explain the no acknowledgement of Gosling from Henry's father, for Gosling is actually Sam on the "dream"...hence when he recovers sight, asks him (who are you? it is actually Sam)

- Henry's parents are Sam's parents reincarnated. This would explain Henry's father phrase: "the buddhist were right all this time" or sort of that...we all know they believe in reincarnation. This would also explain why Gosling (Sam) say they are his parents.

- Gosling (Sam) saying he's going to hell and killing himself because he killed his parents.

- Gosling (Sam) burning his wrist with the cigarette because he mourns for Lila cutting her wrists, he tries to do himself same harm (plus it is a reference to Lila's form of suicide) I believe that during lifetime Sam was Lila's student and they met each other and talked a lot, that'd explain Gosling (Sam) telling McGregor (Henry) "..same way you helped Lila....I saw her wrists...etc"

- Gosling (Sam) shoots himself on the bridge.

- Gosling (Sam) giving sight to Henry's father, Sam is already a ghost from several time ago, and he makes him "see" that he is dead, but he's not gonna reincarnate anymore. Henry did it, he ended up with the circle, Henry and at the same time before Sam's father soul is free.

- Lila's realization at the end, is that she realizes in the "dream" that those specific paintings were hers in real life, she was also a painter in real life, and that she was the one who wrote the "forgive me" stuff as a "goodbye letter" before committing suicide. She also realized that all paintings were signed as "Henry Letham" Letham being an anagram for "Hamlet" (to be or not to be) with this famous quote, giving us the following hint: that in real life, Henry WAS NOT a painter, Sam WAS the painter, she WAS a painter, and that in the "dream" Henry WAS actually Sam and vice-versa.
So, she made this realization on the "dream", but she wasn't able to come out to tell everyone (she was kinda trapped) because all this was actually not happening in her mind, but in Henry's mind. So, she wasn't handling this, but somehow, Lila's ghost, while being near Henry's almost dead corpse and mind-wandering, we can see through her reaction, that she has a kind of flashback or realization (the same one we see she has on Henry's dream) that reminded her when she was alive, her other life..., maybe she even remembered Henry for a second.

- Henry sees what he thinks it should be Athena's face, 'cause perhaps she might have survived the crash, but also sees her face turning into Lila's face, that's why he asks her to marry him. Both were her gilfriends on different times.

- Sam's ghost had a flashback too, remembering when he and Lila had a relationship in real life. (You have to remember flashbacks are really fleeting, unclear most of the times, and we not necessarily speak it out inmediately after we just have them, let alone if you are with people you don't know) So he doesn't say a thing about it to the "nurse" standing beside him, who just met while helping a dying man, he just overlooks it (just as Lila's ghost overlooked with her "realization") and ends up inviting her to coffee or tea or whatsoever...implying that perhaps they'll have a "life" together in the afterlife (ironic, isn't it?)..., maybe a happy one, contrary to what it was on real life, all thanks to Henry's car crash, since that event reunited their ghosts....

- All the rest of people on the film are dead I'd say, but they don't know it, only Henry's father realizes it at the end, that's why he looks so happy and fades happily into the dark in the final scene where he appears. He also thanks Henry to all of this, 'cause it is due to Henry crashing his car that all of this is happening.

- Henry dies at the end.



I hope I made myself clear, I'm no native english speaker. I hope I can get some feedback, if you disagree by making it clear why wouldn't this theory work. Thanks in advance.

PS: Please don't laugh at my theory, I am just a prairie doggie arf arf arf arf!


"To act is not to act" - Me