It's become a familiar science fiction/speculative film premise: what if you could bring someone you love back from the dead, in some way? Perhaps resurrecting them as some kind of zombie, visiting them in some virtual world, or putting their consciousness in another body, either robotic or human. it's the second film with this premise that I've seen just this year, and it's not surprising that it would be popular. Grief is universal, and chances are we've all lost someone we love sooner than we should have, and would give quite a lot to get them back, even if for a moment.
To tell this story in a way that treads new ground, you have to find a certain angle that asks different kinds of questions, offers a different execution of this idea. In his sophomore feature, Piero Messina (The Wait) finds a few twists on trope and a somewhat different perspective that, combined with excellent performances, helps keep it from falling into too much narrative predictability.
Sal (Gael García Bernal) lost his partner Zoe in an accident some time ago, and like so many who lose the person they love in a sudden and unnatural way, he cannot move on. His sister Ebe (Bérénice Bejo) suggests he use the services of the company she works for. This company is able to reproduce the consciousness of a deceased loved one in a host body, for a limited number of times, in order to give those left behind the chance to say the proper goodbye that they never had.
So Sal must encounter his dead girlfriend in another woman's body, and the brief time he spends with her, is about saying goodbye. He's not getting her back permanently; it's about getting the farewell that a sudden death denied him. It's an interesting twist on the premise, making the stakes different. In theory, the fact that Zoe's consciousness is in a different body would help that grief process. If you did see the face of your loved one, it might be impossible to let go what you miraculously get back.
But even with the personality of his girlfriend returned, Sal finds it difficult to connect. He's given some unusual advice: pick a fight with her. And not over something trivial like not washing the dishes properly; find something that will cause a serious problem. As counterintuitive as it might be, it seems to work. Does that mean that Sal and Zoe's relationship was in trouble? Is this why he can't bring himself to say goodbye? But this is Sal's chance to make whatever was wrong, right again.
At the end of each session, Zoe is wrapped up in plastic, as if she is once again being taken away in a body bag. Time, in this sense, is still being constantly suspended for Sal. He gets to have precious moments he thought had been lost, but they will be lost again, and before he can bring himself to let go. Ebe is a regular presence to remind him of the necessity of letting go, and their moments of nostalgia show that peace can come from memories, even if it's not the same as the person.
Messina keeps the pace as, not so much slow, but aching; that constant ache that those of us who have mourned would remember, how it's always there inside your torso. Sometimes it's felt more than other moments, but it never goes away, and time passes both in the blink of an eye and as if all clocks had stopped. One scene where Sal and this 'different' Zoe visit her parents, show how that ache manifests in different ways, either in pretending it doesn't exist, or it written across a face.
Sometimes perhaps, though, that bleakness combined with great sentimentality detracts rather than adds to the conversation about how we need to grieve, and how we need to confront the lack of maturity we often have around grief. Sal's exercise in letting go (perhaps inevitably) backfires as he becomes obsessed with the host body, and Ava, that host, finds herself having to rethink this job she took, likely for the money.
While arguably not quite earning its running time, and perhaps being a bit more dour in aesthetic than necessary, Another End captures well that feeling of unending grief and our reefusal to confront it.
Another End opens in select theatres and on-demand on Friday, September 19th.