Ben Affleck's character's profession?
I freaking loved this movie, but I was trying to figure out what was Ben Affleck's character's profession? It seems like his job became an interesting theme for the film.
shareI wasn't sure either but here is the official synopsis explaining his occupation:
Two years later, Neil and Marina are living in a small town in Oklahoma, close to where Neil grew up. Neil, having given up his hopes of becoming a writer, has taken a job as an environmental inspector....
....Professional life throws Neil into conflict as well, when he discovers that a smelting operation in town is polluting the soil and water and threatening the health of future generations. His concerns fail to persuade his neighbors, who depend on the smelter for their livelihoods. Under pressure to keep quiet, Neil must once again weigh the consequences of his actions.
http://collider.com/to-the-wonder-synopsis-terrence-malick/
So it seems like Neil was an aspiring writer but that part wasn't really shown (unless I missed some hints onscreen).
And I read that actor Michael Sheen (not to be mixed up with Martin Sheen) was going to play Ben Affleck's boss but that was of course not shown either.
It would be interesting to know if Michael Sheen played a sort of character like Nick Nolte's role in The Thin Red Line, the kind of character that gave orders and expected them followed, and Ben Affleck would be morally conflicted about it.
share
It seemed to me the impossible pressures of his job as an environmental inspector led him to "keep it all inside", and that style of being is what killed his relationship too.
Every day he had to try to seek some happy medium between impossibly conflicting points of view. And because serious conflict was often hidden just below the surface, he had to be very cautious to not rile anyone up. Or to put it more bluntly, in order to do his job he had to be an unemotional automaton.
It seemed to me that his behavior on the job contrasted markedly with his earlier behavior on the train and at Mont Saint-Michel.
Am I just imagining this connection? Is the line from his job as an evironmental inpector to his failed relationship not as strong and direct as it seems to me?