A change of perspective

I originally gave this film a 6/10. I'd now pretty easily give it a 7.5/10. It certainly still has its flaws. The dialogue isn't the best, some of that could be put down to just being bad writing, but it would also make sense that conversation would have its awkward or strange moments as it was a relationship between a foreigner in a foreign country and an American. Language barriers, basically. The acting itself isn't bad, especially considering a lot of the major actors were just people Gaspar met at a club or a party (something along those lines). At first I had a problem with the title. I believed it would make more sense to call it "lust" rather than "love", however the theme of love, and the question of what love really means is raised a lot in this film. Some of the characters are easily hated due to the acts of cheating and whatnot (implied, or explicit), but the film really has a way of making you feel sorry for and sympathising with characters such as Murphy or Elektra. It certainly doesn't condone cheating, but it exhibits the human tendency to be flawed and make mistakes. Everything was a downward spiral from the moment they had that threesome with their neighbour. I haven't quite figured out if Murphy's cheating with the girl at the bar and subsequent revelation of Elektra supposedly cheating with Noé was before the threesome, but it certainly encouraged Murphy to have his own solo involvements with the neighbour. And in the event that the other acts of cheating did occur first, sure, that was terrible, both Murphy and Elektra were lusty people. But what we always saw is that they always pulled through because of how strong their connection of love was. It was the impregnation of the neighbour that Elektra couldn't forgive. It was stated pretty clearly that Elektra wanted to have children with Murphy, and raise a family together. It was also clear that she loved him, but had her doubts that he loved her (a possible explanation as to why she supposedly cheated on Murphy with Noé could be that if she revealed such information, Murphy would instantly be jealous, be upset and come crawling back to her, again, not condoning cheating, but showing the flaws of human thinking). It wasn't until Murphy had quite clearly lost what he had that he realised how important it was to him. But it wasn't a matter of simple jealousy or a sense that he had lost someone they "belongs to him" that was upsetting him in the end. In the final scene of the film, he's clearly been affected by the whole ordeal, and I believe, upon my most recent viewing, also contemplated suicide after coming to the concluding that Elektra probably did the same (the conversations of death and suicide that led up to the final moment of the film, and the red colouring over the film at the end, possibly symbolising blood, implying death). The scene of Murphy and Elektra in the bathtub together and ending it there, seems to me, to be symbolic of them being together again in death. Murphy apologising to his son could also be an apology for the suicide he was soon to commit. On my earlier viewings, I didn't quite see the strong connection between Murphy and Elektra, I couldn't get past the fact that either of them had cheated. That seemed to break any illusion of love for me. At the time when I first saw the film, I was single and had only been in one fleeting relationship prior. By the time of my more recent viewing (immediately before making this post), I've been in a relationship for a while now in which I and my partner feel we have a strong connection. I certainly have a different view on what love is now. And with that change in perspective, my view on the film has changed too. There was undoubtedly love between Murphy and Elektra, but their various issues related to simply being human and having flaws got in the way and caused the connection to break, whilst there was still a sense of love, explaining the act of suicide itself, as there was a stronger connection between them than the previous relationships and one-night stands that Murphy and Elektra have had in the past. Recall the scene in which Elektra said that if she and Murphy ever broke up, she would probably "disappear", and how she dismissed Murphy's comment about how she was still alive despite how many guys she's broken up with in the past. Some could say the drug abuse also led to warping the minds of Elektra or even Murphy and could have influenced them into killing themselves, however Elektra clearly was using drugs before meeting Murphy (Elektra introducing Murphy to opium and saying from experience that sex while on opium was the best). My thoughts are probably all being typed out in a mess, and might not flow particularly well, but it's 3am and I decided I wanted to just say a few things about the film after I watched it under a new light.