This movie confused me, but I felt really sorry for the main character, Carol (Julianne Moore). The first 30 min of movie shows her as this v attractive, wealthy, suburban house wife living in Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley).
But after the first 30 min she starts to experience cough, difficulty breathing, nose bleeds etc. Then one night a total breakdown where she asks her husband "where am I?" and starts crying. She is confused and having a mental breakdown.
Her husband, Greg (Xander Berkeley), is emotionless, muted, completely clueless, and emotionally unsupportive.
She lives a v passive, stale, emotionless, robotic life where despite of attractive outward appearances she just goes thru the motions of decorating her house, going to baby showers, lunches w friends, etc.
She needs something to connect w emotionally. She is just so quiet and her emotionless husband does absolutely nothing.
She thinks she may be reacting to fumes like from trucks, pollutants, industry etc and goes to support groups.
After about the 1st hour, I lost total interest in the movie as it takes a turn into the science fiction realm. It started to feel like an episode of "The X Files".
She speaks in a soft monotone thru out the movie.
This movie just needed more emotion. Sadness, anger, outrage, jealousy, anything. We needed the character to react w more emotion, and it needed to elicit emotion in us. It did not happen.
Not sure what the director's idea of the movie was. But my take was the main character, Carol (Julianne Moore), is having a psycho somatic illness due to some strong repressed memories. She going thru a psychosis and suffering from a mental breakdown. She cannot connect w her current reality anymore. It is her minds way of saying "face your repressed memories".
A little family background on her like who is her mom and dad etc may have helped us understand her.
But the sci-fi story line on her reacting to "chemicals" and she needed to be completely isolated from rest of society is v weird, boring, and creepy. It is a waste of a great actress like Julianne Moore.
It is like saying in order to feel "safe", she needed to be in an isolated camp separate from society w others similar to herself. Is that really "safe" or is it just making her problem worse?
No matter what the issue was, putting her away in an isolated camp was the answer. She needed therapy and she needs to mingle and be integrated into mainstream society. She needs to maintain her social connections in order to heal. Not be further isolated from them.
Moral of the story is: whatever illness you are suffering from, mental or otherwise, you are still part of society. Work w therapists to get better. Putting you away in an isolated "camp" is not the answer. Be brave, face it, and fight to remain in mainstream society. And society needs to do the same. Society needs to accept them and create resources to help. It is a problem we need to face and not hide.
We are not really completely "safe" anywhere. Pollutants, repressed memories, etc. Anything can get you. You cannot exist in a vacuum. You have to live w these problems as they are part of the real world. By isolating yourself in your house or camp etc, you are not really "safe". It is just an illusion of safety. You are further aggravating the problem.
Director, Todd Haynes, needs to come on here and explain what the heck he was trying to say in this movie. Carol (Julianne Moore) 's nose bleed was due to sheer boredom of this movie.
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