Interplanner
Well-known member
Review of
PERFECT SENSE
2011, written by Kim Fupz Aakeson
By Marcus Sanford, www.interplans.net
Here is a secular apocalypse of sorts which is told through the relationship of a couple, and never leaves their point of view very long. Catastrophic events do not happen directly, but rather through a progression of a loss of senses, ending with the inability to hear. The general population panics at each stage.
The progression results in a conclusion that panic and outbursts and aggressive behavior are not beneficial to society, and that people want to go on with life. There never seems to be a temporary stop to romantic or sexual pleasure throughout the story, although it is placed in the same category as eating while the story’s anchor couple finally suffer the aggression and rage at the onset of the loss of hearing. The movie unnecessarily showed the obvious about sexual pleasure. But virtuous and civil behavior wins the day, and the various qualities related to love are upheld as the bottom line and are the essentials without which life cannot go on. That’s refreshing to hear in an otherwise dark drama.
The storyline actually avoids the prevailing media view of a secular apocalypse; there is nothing about climate change, etc. However, there is an aside about the abrupt dying-off of the mammoths. The point is made that the sensory failures that have happened to mankind were sudden, although they are not ‘blamed’ on God (the usual expected sub-text) nor seen as part of God’s wrath, in the sense found in Christian theology. So were the deaths of the mammoths, as though they were hit by a sudden blow. But the implication is that this was just part of an irrational universe, nothing to do with the Genesis deluge. The writer explored apocalyptic thinking in short essays within the film (usually spoken by the lead female), but chose not to explore that.
The story ends in darkness, actual visual darkness, but the couple is embracing. The suggestion is that sight is now gone. The woman was already in grief because of her infertility, before any of the public sensory losses took place. We find this out in mid-story, and wonder if the whole film is an analogy about that loss. But now at the end, the writer tells us that if you had seen them, they would look like any other couple in love, embracing, and comforting each other.
Marcus Sanford’s short novels and scripts are at Amazon.com
PERFECT SENSE
2011, written by Kim Fupz Aakeson
By Marcus Sanford, www.interplans.net
Here is a secular apocalypse of sorts which is told through the relationship of a couple, and never leaves their point of view very long. Catastrophic events do not happen directly, but rather through a progression of a loss of senses, ending with the inability to hear. The general population panics at each stage.
The progression results in a conclusion that panic and outbursts and aggressive behavior are not beneficial to society, and that people want to go on with life. There never seems to be a temporary stop to romantic or sexual pleasure throughout the story, although it is placed in the same category as eating while the story’s anchor couple finally suffer the aggression and rage at the onset of the loss of hearing. The movie unnecessarily showed the obvious about sexual pleasure. But virtuous and civil behavior wins the day, and the various qualities related to love are upheld as the bottom line and are the essentials without which life cannot go on. That’s refreshing to hear in an otherwise dark drama.
The storyline actually avoids the prevailing media view of a secular apocalypse; there is nothing about climate change, etc. However, there is an aside about the abrupt dying-off of the mammoths. The point is made that the sensory failures that have happened to mankind were sudden, although they are not ‘blamed’ on God (the usual expected sub-text) nor seen as part of God’s wrath, in the sense found in Christian theology. So were the deaths of the mammoths, as though they were hit by a sudden blow. But the implication is that this was just part of an irrational universe, nothing to do with the Genesis deluge. The writer explored apocalyptic thinking in short essays within the film (usually spoken by the lead female), but chose not to explore that.
The story ends in darkness, actual visual darkness, but the couple is embracing. The suggestion is that sight is now gone. The woman was already in grief because of her infertility, before any of the public sensory losses took place. We find this out in mid-story, and wonder if the whole film is an analogy about that loss. But now at the end, the writer tells us that if you had seen them, they would look like any other couple in love, embracing, and comforting each other.
Marcus Sanford’s short novels and scripts are at Amazon.com