"How many people have felt the pressure when you walk through the hallway or enter the
classroom?" Everyone raises their hands. So do I.
The characters in Detachment are always unable to detach their lives.They try, they struggle, and they are always spinning between hope and disappointment. Everyone in the movie tries to detach, but is carried forward by the torrent of fate, even if it ends in destruction. In this review, I will mainly analyze the characterization of this movie.
Meredith (played by Betty Kaye) is extremely gifted, her sensitive heart makes her
observant and creative. Black collages, empty classrooms, and faceless teachers are her only means of catharsis. She is desperate for love, and in her family she doesn't feel loved, but more abused and disliked. When she feels the warmth of her teacher Henry(played by Adrien Brody), whom she regards as her spiritual support,she bravely goes for the hug,hysterically asking for help. She recklessly pounces on him,being pushed away and falling into a bottomless abyss. Eating a cupcake with a crying face, leaving behind bright red blood,she leaves forever with a black smile on her face. And so it is that this talented artist, ended her life with the last and only performance art of her life that centered on herself, which may have been her detachment.
"But still, she repaid us for all we've done by killing herself.Stupid selfish child, now she'll
never get into Princeton." That’s what my parents will think at my funeral, she thinks.
When I was in junior high school, one of my extremely artistic classmates had suddenly
changed from a girl who loved to smile, to a girl whose expression gradually became
numb.She no longer loved to talk to people and never took off her mask until later. She
used to be good at using color to express her emotions, but now there was something depressing in her paintings, which were always black and white and gray, as if she was
crying out for help. She suffered from depression and tried to end herself. Later, we
moved on to high school, and there is no contact information for this girl. I wonder how
she was doing in this world.
Henry, the main character, seems to be the one who knows how to love people the best,
and tries to make things better for those around him, but his influence is not enough to
change the effects of Meredith's home environment, or the damage done to her by
Erica(played by Sami Gayle)'s street prostitutes. As for himself, he grew up in a chaotic
home that taught him to hide his emotions, but he is like a balloon ready to burst. He
takes in Erika, an underage prostitute, treats her wounds and gives her a home, only to
send Erika to juvie when he realizes what he's capable of; he continues to act like a
gentleman to the rude students at school.Every day in a lifeless school with hopeless
students, he tries to heal others while neglecting himself. Without respite, he loses his
expression and becomes the faceless teacher in Meredith's painting." And never have I
felt so deeply at one and the same time, so detached from myself and so present in the
world." This is his monologue in the movie.
As night fell, I finally stepped out of the hallway that had been so stressful for me. Looking at all the people on the street, I heard women sobbing, I heard vendors shouting
at the top of their lungs, and I heard old men arguing eagerly about something. They are
doing things that are not related to each other, but they all take these emotions home
with them at night,take them to work with them in the morning. We can’t really empathize with anyone.
"How could we become somebody to get out of the sea of pain that we all have to get
out of?"
Love yourself, redeem yourself, that's the best detachment. People are desperately
seeking meaning and redemption, but their lives are always in chaos. As life goes on, all
we can do is to feel the warmth of life with our hearts. Joy, sorrow, death, sin, good
deeds ....... Throughout life, humans cannot escape the prison of reality. So try to feel
what is real and be brave enough to embrace it. Others are not the only salvation. One fall at a time, one growth at a time, let us learn to heal ourselves. This is a lifelong subject for us.
Rebuilding seems to be a necessity after destruction, and the movie ends with Henry
meeting Erica again. In the face of Erica's embrace, this time, he does not push away.
I saw a ray of sunshine through the cracks of the embrace.