Sophie's Choice meets the English Patient w/ a Hollywood ending
The acting and dialog in this movie are first rate. But is there a "there there"? Hanna is the emotionally damaged survivor of War atrocity. She avoids any emotional and social life working only for survival in a Scottish factory. When her employer forces her to take a vacation she is forced to think about more than survival. At the last second she tries to avoid leisure time and the possibility of introspection and resurfacing emotion by volunteering to nurse for badly burned oil rig worker, Josef (Tim Robbins). Isolated on the Oil Rig with a skeleton crew she is touched by the guilt ridden and emotionally extroverted Josef. In return she confesses her own horrors. Having exposed herself she escapes from this impromptu group therapy and returns to her previous work life. Josef tracks her down with the help of Hanna's psychiatrist, Inge (Julie Christie). Julie Christie is excellent in this cameo role. Inga violates the most basic ethics of her profession to help Josef find Hanna. Hanna attempts to reject Josef because she is afraid her emotional problems will overwhelm them both. Based only on Josef's assertion that he will learn to deal with her emotional problems she relents, embrace, kiss fade out. I love the way this film is made. I love the acting. I love the dialog. In the end the resolution does not hold up. It isn't that the plot is improbable, it is simply that there is no explanation of how the events lead to the resolution.
The acting and dialog in this movie are first rate. But is there a "there there"? Hanna is the emotionally damaged survivor of War atrocity. She avoids any emotional and social life working only for survival in a Scottish factory. When her employer forces her to take a vacation she is forced to think about more than survival. At the last second she tries to avoid leisure time and the possibility of introspection and resurfacing emotion by volunteering to nurse for badly burned oil rig worker, Josef (Tim Robbins). Isolated on the Oil Rig with a skeleton crew she is touched by the guilt ridden and emotionally extroverted Josef. In return she confesses her own horrors. Having exposed herself she escapes from this impromptu group therapy and returns to her previous work life. Josef tracks her down with the help of Hanna's psychiatrist, Inge (Julie Christie). Julie Christie is excellent in this cameo role. Inga violates the most basic ethics of her profession to help Josef find Hanna. Hanna attempts to reject Josef because she is afraid her emotional problems will overwhelm them both. Based only on Josef's assertion that he will learn to deal with her emotional problems she relents, embrace, kiss fade out. I love the way this film is made. I love the acting. I love the dialog. In the end the resolution does not hold up. It isn't that the plot is improbable, it is simply that there is no explanation of how the events lead to the resolution.