Saturday, July 31, 2004

Love Liza

Last night we saw this film. It is the story of the aftermath of a woman's (Liza's) suicide. Yea, pretty strong topic for a Friday night flick. If I try to fit this into my theme of films prodding me to live life to its fullest, I would say that this film shows what suicide means to those left behind and therefore shows by reflection the importance of living. Liza's husband, Wilson (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is surprised and devastated by her suicide which causes him to tumble into addiction, specifically sniffing gasoline. It is difficult to watch the level of self hate arising from guilt that forces him to do this. Liza left him a letter, a suicide note, and he is terrified to open it, terrified that it will tell him that it was all his fault, but he believes that is what it says anyway and acts accordingly. Liza's mother is played by Kathy Bates and we see a little bit of her grief also. Both actors are excellent. As a person who has thought about suicide from time to time, I have to say this gives me new perspective on what it would do to my family and loved ones. In depression, it is easy to tell yourself that no one cares about you but I think, deep down, I knew this wasn't true and so I didn't move much further than thought. But I definitely didn't think seriously about the days and weeks and months that my loved ones would suffer. I am far from the depressed person I once was.... still I will keep the lesson of this film close to me.

2 comments:

Siona said...

I like your perspective on the film, and on how it relates to depression (and vice versa), as well. I'm more (personally) familiar with adolescent threats of suicide, and I know they tend to be more of the, "I'll show them . . . they'll miss me when I'm gone" variety. So one could be upset with the film in how it demonstrates that suicide is an effective way of calling attention to your(non)self. I like your reading of it better, though.

I've never seen the movie, but I'm a tremendous P.S.H. fan. (I watched most of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' last night, which is another provocative film . . . albeit one that makes more of a point not just about living, but about living in such a way that is true to yourself, about the temptation and ultimate emptiness and danger about living a lie.) I've been having a harder and harder time finding really worthwhile films, so thank you for this recommendation. I'll definitely check it out.

Holly Miller said...

Thanks Siona. I didn't get the impression that Liza committed suicide to get attention but her motivation wasn't portrayed directly. I had the feeling she was just depressed and hopeless. When I thought about suicide in college it was more the way your describe, to get back at all the people who I felt were hurting me. However, after watching this film I realized that I had NO IDEA what a suicide can really do to loved ones. Maybe it's because I am older too but I realize how wrong I was when I thought that my suicide would 'get back at them'. I liked and was disturbed by 'Talented Mr. Ripley'. Somehow dishonesty really bothers me and I am not sure why. I should watch it again and explore the discomfort further. Thanks for reading and commenting.