In the beginning...
There are a lot of don't-try-this-at-home lessons in A Home at the End of the World. The film doesn't quite hang together. Its spine is limp. It's got no momentum. It's sometimes really, really precious.
But this film does something superbly: it gives us a back story sequence right up front that's so powerful, it creates a sense of interest and sympathy in the protagonist... a protagonist who, for the majority of the film, is a walking, talking cypher.
In this back story sequence, the protagonist as a little boy is hovering on the fringes of his older brother's house party. The older brother is a free spirit-- stoned, loving, peaceful, friendly. At one point, this older brother is called inside from the back yard. Without thinking, he runs toward the party in the living room... right through the glass sliding doors. He dies a few moments later in the arms of his girlfriend. Everyone at the party is as stunned as we are.
And when we get a grip on our emotions, we say to ourselves-- that kid brother's going to be messed-up bigtime. And guess what? He spends the rest of the film looking for the "home" of the title.
If you're going to rely heavily on explaining a character with a back story scene... it'd better be a damn fine scene.
There are a lot of don't-try-this-at-home lessons in A Home at the End of the World. The film doesn't quite hang together. Its spine is limp. It's got no momentum. It's sometimes really, really precious.
But this film does something superbly: it gives us a back story sequence right up front that's so powerful, it creates a sense of interest and sympathy in the protagonist... a protagonist who, for the majority of the film, is a walking, talking cypher.
In this back story sequence, the protagonist as a little boy is hovering on the fringes of his older brother's house party. The older brother is a free spirit-- stoned, loving, peaceful, friendly. At one point, this older brother is called inside from the back yard. Without thinking, he runs toward the party in the living room... right through the glass sliding doors. He dies a few moments later in the arms of his girlfriend. Everyone at the party is as stunned as we are.
And when we get a grip on our emotions, we say to ourselves-- that kid brother's going to be messed-up bigtime. And guess what? He spends the rest of the film looking for the "home" of the title.
If you're going to rely heavily on explaining a character with a back story scene... it'd better be a damn fine scene.
posted by Jennica at 11:08 a.m.
2 Comments:
The scene was birthed in Cunningham's short story "White Angel" (Best American Short Stories 1989)that subsequently became the third chapter of his novel -- if you've never read it, check it out -- one of the most beautiful (and devastating) stories I've ever read.
Will do. Thanks Billy!
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