SPOILERS ALERT
What I liked about the film:
The acting, but I often find it a matter of opinion whether there is good or bad acting in films. I also thought it was well cast. But the main argument I make for the film concerns the way the film explores the difference between how things look or seem on the surface, and what is really going on.
The choice of Hawaii as the locale is obviously intentional in that connection, and I don't doubt there may have been included an intended anti-development polemic, not that such is undeserving, included as well. But that is a specific facet, not necessarily part of the underlying attraction of the film.
As the film perhaps too explicitly notes, but this does set the stage, the daily life experienced by those living in a surface appearing paradise is not without the complications that life brings no matter where you live. In fact one must be careful not to let the surface veneer fool you, as is very much the case with Beau Bridges's cousin Hugh. While the film does not make an explicit connection to an assessmsent or argument that the surface amounts to pure fakery, even counterfeiting (please see the 80's era classic example of that type of film in William Friedkin's To Live and Die in LA), it is the distance from the surface image from the underlying reality that is where the film's dynamic plays out.
Matt's journey begins before the film's beginning, as his wife (seen in flashback) has already had a horrific accident, and not in some mundane way, but while pleasure boating off Waikiki. How Hawaiian! And yet, how awful. He gives expression to his regrets with an almost cliched voice over, stating an intention once his somewhat estranged wife awakes to start over.
This happy ever after scenario is quickly subverted by the bad news delivered by Elizabeth's doctor, and paradise is not about to return to Paradise. Well, not without a journey.
Matt then spends time with Scottie, his younger daughter. Is she merely a bully he wonders as the mother of a fellow student claims? Perhaps, although the student's reaction on their encounter is quite ambiguous. Yet we can easily imagine the foul mouthed Scottie in that role. But the encounter also includes a tie in to what is a huge issue looming in Matt's life, with the mother not so subtly lobbying him not to sell the land. Is that why she called him???
Matt takes Scottie to his club, which we soon learn has a connection to his wife's accident. The nearing middle aged beach bum he encounters has a role in the accident, but again, it is not clear, and we are left with a concern that Troy is another resident of Paradise who is very much a mixed bag.
Feeling quite unbalanced, it occurs to Matt he must inform his oldest daughter, and not so subtly if also not surprisingly feels that she may be a help with Scottie. As they both travel to the big island, we already suspect the surface veneer, and Alexandra sure enough is breaking the rules, as foul mouthed as her younger sister, and drunk. Well, somewhat, anyway.
This subversion of the ideal of the family drawing together to deal with unhappy news is only getting started, of course. Leaves in the pool show the household is already showing decline due to Elizabeth's absence. Things must either move forward or they will go into decline. Matt seems clear eyed at times, quiet at others, but also (later) pondering his fate over a glass (or several) of whiskey. He in fact can go in several directions at this point. Where does he go?
The full measure of how much his life had been drifting before the film began begins to become apparent when Alexandra tells Matt about Elizabeth's infidelity. While we can accept at least conceptually that Matt may not have been the best husband all along, and how that might have played into Elizabeth's cheating, her doing so in a way that allowed for discovery by Alexandra is a concern, compounded by her angry reaction when Alexandra confronted her. But again, this is not a simple case of Elizabeth being a purely self involved adulterer. Interesting as well is Alexandra's anger is in some measure a reflection of prior problems in her relation with her mother. Despite ambivalence in her relation with Matt, on this score Alexandra seems to blame Elizabeth entirely.
Matt reacts understandably to this news, but later we see how he takes some of the blame for his wife's cheating on himself. He knows things Alexandra does not.
Sid is another one who we see is first something quite a bit more toxic than the simple minded beach bum he seems to be at first. As is Elizabeth's father quite a bit more than the let's all pull together family member.
The plot line involving the Kauai property is reintroduced following Matt's identification of Brian Speer as his wife's lover. In this segment we learn not only that the land in question is something quite a bit more than just an "undeveloped" piece of land, that being a land not only legally but literally held in trust, with memories and a human connection to it. We also learn that whatever plans for confronting Brian must take into account the other members of Brian's own nuclear family, including his by all appearances very innocent, charming and nice wife. Or is that another surface illusion?
Matt continues his journey by encountering cousin Hugh, who we first see here as a middle aged laid back almost hippie type. We might normally expect such a person to have, like, you know, respect for the beauty of the land, man, but Hugh in fact seems rather "resigned" to selling it.
Matt also begins to understand that Brian's cheating on his wife is not the only problem in their situation, as the financial underpinnings of the family apparently include some suspect connection to the land deal. So, going ahead with the deal will be good for the Speer family, including nice Julie?
Matt does confront Brian in the most awkward of circumstances, yet his concern for Julie and their children prevents him from ratting Brian out. We admire Matt for that, for his restraint. Yet... he forcefully kisses Julie outside of Brian's sight, and we feel a frisson of satisfaction, with this small measure of getting back at his wife's lover.
And yet... Matt also has discovered Brian really did not love Julie. What then to make of the views/news from Elizabeth's friend that she thought Julie wanted to leave Matt for Brian? And destroy his family as well as Matt and theirs? What was THAT based upon? Brian said it was only a physical attraction, begun at a Super Bowl party.
THey have those in Hawaii, too.
The narrative proceeds through another perhaps even greater expression of Matt's restraint, having to hear his father in law refer to his wife as faithful. Lucky that he did not say that in front of Alexandra. The encounter with Julie in the hospital room shows what perhaps not surprisingly was the actual outcome of Matt's visit to the Speers, and I for one wonder whether and to what extent his kissing Julie alerted her to something being wrong in her marriage.
The theme of death in the film calls for a separate discussion, I think, one in any event I have no time for today.
But the foregoing I think makes for an interesting narrative exposition of how we can get pieces of the truth from others, but that the truth of human relations is only partly understood at times, here and there. Each glimpse may be misleading, or only tell part of the truth. Even as the film closes we only understand part of who Elizabeth was. But just like in real life, that is the way it is for all of us when and as we leave this world.
In short, I found in the film a true representation of how we understand others and waht is true about them, and ourselves. There in fact is an absence of conventional story telling in that regard in this film. The film's appearance as a conventional narrative belies its risks and willingness to examine some very hard issues. It has a certain bravery in the way it proceeds.
I enjoyed it very much.
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