knives wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 4:36 pm
An elegantly told women’s picture which aims to be an expert in genre execution and mostly succeeds. Admittedly Jones’ aggressive put ons weren’t for me leaving me uncomfortable at first, but even those work well to build the character relationships quickly.
The film really succeeds by how it gently pushes us to read between the lines- I too was confused by the initial scene of their encounter, after Jones reacts rather cruelly and Carroll responds with enhanced attraction. However, it soon becomes clear through the peripheries of her own role within her social context that Carroll is less repelled by the surface level of Jones' words compared to seeing the value in his strong-willed self-advocacy to his white boss attempting to tell him how to do his job. It's a great study of hierarchical morals in a population that doesn't have the luxury of being self-righteously triggered by every cold word thrown their way, and gradually prompts us to open our minds to all the diverse strengths we miss in the process of such rigid judgments, born from privilege with the consequence of missing opportunities for resilient attitudes.
So the film becomes a unique rom-com, at least for me as a white viewer, taught to consume many genre entries with less flexible superficial boundaries for the protagonists to concoct problems. The film also doubles as a raw microcosmic social problem drama, painting a multidimensional portrait of systemic barriers to the family unit that are not only sourced in the external modalities of oppression, but from within the family. The universality of love is explored in the blurry line of protective vs restrictive interventions, the strengths and barriers of collectivist cultures, which threaten to dissemble under the provocations of socioeconomic violations that coerce assimilation away from the ethos in cultural affinity and towards anglo-individualism. The social worker's double-standard solipsism coupled with the daughter's sexual exploration in back-to-back scenes quickly introduce new problems that help redefine the pressure mounting on all sides, both suffocating and intimately joining family members. It's a very impressive film that uses traditional narrative form to slowly acclimate us to a world that becomes increasingly complex. Of course it is, but rarely is a film so creatively accessible in assembling inclusive avenues for foreigners to enter its milieu.
The way the film ends is not fantasy but emblematic of conditioned resilience. While I mostly agree with knives that it's primarily posing as a class commentary, I couldn't help but believe that the racial signifier of forced lifelong coping skills beyond economic disparities is what supported an ironic and bizarre 'happy' ending (in contrast to the consequential events yet earned through attitude). Too many white class-meditation films would and have ended in devastation without the elastic instinct to reframe hardship into gratitude, as both a necessary defense mechanism and an opportunity for grace.