MovieChat Forums > The One I Love (2014) Discussion > A high level explanation

A high level explanation

posted 6 years ago by Coherence (3)
3 replies | jump to latest

I think taking this movie literally is both making it too easy and too complicated. On one hand it's too easy because it doesn't require an awful lot of imagination. On the other hand, it's very complicated because you end up with "weird" stuff that has to be explained (like parallel universes, force fields, guest house windows with weird properties, etc).

I like to think of the movie as representing a therapy session. They were, after all, "sent" there by the therapist. I like to think that the different personalities in the movie represent different personalities within Ethan and Sophie. The therapy session makes these personalities come out, at first just for a few moments but later on more and more. However, only one personality per person can walk out the door at the end of the session.

So my interpretation is that they went to a therapy session, talked about their problems and the therapist brought out different parts of their personalities, and then finally they went home. Ethan was probably quite the same after the session, except that he had learned which qualities Sophie was missing in him (the things she liked about Ethan2). Sophie had done the same, which is displayed at the very end when she suggest cooking bacon for breakfast, something she wasn't fond of before but which was one of the things that Ethan liked about Sophie2. Ethans shocked stare at the end of the movie simply displays his surprise that the therapy went so well, and that Sophie had actually changed.

I think it doesn't really matter if Sophie at the end is Sophie1 or Sophie2, because they're not that different anyway. Ethan2 was more drastically different than Ethan1, so his part of Ethans personality had to disappear during the therapy session, which is why he was killed by the "force field". I take it that the therapist and/or Sophie made it clear to Ethan that he should try to avoid displaying the Ethan2 -part of his personality.

[–] zeesha (1826) 6 years ago

Nope. Ethan2 and Sophie2 are not different personality of Ethan and Sophie, they are entirely two different persons who are pretending to be Ethan and Sophie. From the photos and audio that Ethan found on the laptop in the guest house, I have reason to believe that they are member of other couples who visited the house before and trapped there since (as Sophie and Ethan2, in the end). Before Ethan and Sophie visiting the house, the therapist gives the trapped couple a chance to leave by altering them to look and sound exactly like Ethan and Sophie with some magic or future technology. Sophie2 explains the rule of the house to Ethan "That's how this works. That's how we get out. That's how we become you. Pitting you against each other is the best way to break you down, and then it's your turn to stay." (BTW, Sophie2's explanation might not be entirely true- if E1 and S2 can leave, then so can E2 and S1. Whether both E2 and S2 can leave there togather is still a question. I guess there is also a competition between E2 and S2 about who leave and who stay.)
However, given the fact that Ethan and Sophie cheat on each other during their "adventure" and their relationship gets worse and worse, how can anyone still think the whole thing is part of their therapy?

[–] Coherence (3) 6 years ago

You're missing my point completely.

I'm suggesting that the entire movie (except for maybe the first few scenes in the psychiatrists office) is simply a "metaphor" for their continued therapy sessions.

There is no estate with a guesthouse.

Everything in the movie is some kind of visual symbolism for what's going on in their minds during their couples therapy sessions. First they want to "leave the estate", i.e. discontinue the therapy sessions. Then they gradually, with the help of the therapist, uncover aspects of their personalities that they don't normally display. Finally, they are done with the therapy and "go home".

Instead of a boring movie of a couple going to session after session of couples therapy (probably individually, as the "guesthouse" doesn't work if they enter it simultaneously), we get a weird and fun metaphor movie about the subject. Kind of like the scenes in "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" where Jim Carey is running from collapsing memories (but really he's just sitting in a memory-erasing machine).

[–] zeesha (1826) 6 years ago

Unlike "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind", there is not a single clue in this movie that suggests their visiting the estate is not real but a "metaphor" for exploring their personalities in their minds during continued therapy sessions.
After return from the estate, they go to see the therapist but everything is gone. How do you explain that? I think that is, on the contrary, a clue that suggests their therapy is bogus, disguising the true intention of the "therapist" - to select problem couples to be lab rats of an insane social experiment or candidates of a cruel reality game.
I'd agree that we can seek metaphors and message from movies. For me, this movie's message is "Rather than hanging on to an unhappy relationship, finding a new partner is an way out". Which is deliverd in a tricky way to avoid moral judgement or offend those who think marriage is sacred.