horrible, pretentious, disturbing as hell.
This is not what you usually call a bad movie, this is one of those few movies that makes me think they never should have been made. I wish I could erase it from my memory, that's how bad it made me feel.
Making an artsy movie with pretentious photography does NOT make it ok to glorify incest and sexualize prepubescent actors. And yes, I understand, simbolism, coping with the loss of the loved one... all of that. Not an excuse for how awful this movie is.
I don't even know where to start, there is so much wrong in it.
Awful acting. Awful dialogues. Tommy's character is one of the less believable i have ever seen. And probably the most disturbing plot in the history of cinema.
-the "love" story was not believable, not even for a moment. I believed they were friends as children, and I believe the director wanted me really hard to think that childood friendship+5 minutes of idiotic lines= love. He failed.
-Thomas as an adult, a completely empty character besides the "oh, he's so original and special" angle, and why is he so original and special? We never get to know, there's no time, because apparently undestanding why she goes to such extremes for this man is not as important as taking the bathtub scenes number up to 12 or something.
-the terrible children-in-bed scene. It is obviuos nothing related to sex has happened. Will someone explain why such a young girl (when i later learned she was supposed to be 9 my stomach tried to leave my body permanently) got to be in her underwear? And in such a suggestive pose? The children have no reason to be half naked, the script does, proposing the first instance of the horrible, disturbing sexualisation of children that carries on for most of the movie. All I could think about half the time was how much a pedophile would enjoy that crap.
-all of the other countless disturbing scenes with cloned Thomas and Rebecca kissing his neck, the "do with me what you want", etc.
-the sound pornography. paper shuffling. footsteps. And breathing, so much breathing to last you for 10 lifetimes. And on a side note: why on earth does she have to open her mouth further every time she inhales? that's not even remotely close to how humans breath. Oh! I know why! So every time she plays with her child we are reminded via horrible acting of the fact she want to have sex with him! horray!
-the complete uselesness of the girlfriend character, doomed to sit forever in the plot device holding pen.
-Thomas2 boy friend in the village? plot device! His friend at the beach? guess what, another plot device. Nothing these boys do together changes/makes thomas grow in any way.
-unbearable pacing a rhythm, except the last 20 minutes
-what was the reason again for Thomas to do what he did(surpise: it's sex! With his mother!) in ending? After all, in his mind that was his mother up until that point. The only reason i can think of is he was lusting after her while thinking she was his mother and grabbed the "hey, we're not really related" chance at once...well that is really disgusting. and sick, oh so sick. If, on the other hand, he did it "for her", as goodbye, or anything like that... Well, congratulation Thomas, you're a plot devide too! At least you're not alone!
By this time it's clear that my advice is stay as far away from this movie as you can. I'm not a prude and I enjoy sexual tension and desire in movie, I enjoy explicit scenes when they are well made, but for the love of god let it be between adult characters. Or teenagers. Anything but a mother and his (kind-of-)son! The breastfeeding scene is one of the most creepy, horrifying things I have ever seen... luckily my friends are over with breastfeeding or I'd be reminded of the horrible feeling I got from this movie every single time.
TL;DR version: watching this movie you will be under the impression that it has been written and directed by a pedophile (and an incestuous one, at that). NOT a good feeling.