The psychological thriller was filmed based on the work of Austin Wright “Tony and Susan”, its premiere took place in November-December 2016. The director of the film is Tom Ford, he tried to ensure that the film received quite a lot of positive reviews not only from moviegoers, but also from film critics. The box office has made more than 30 million dollars from all cinemas of the world.
The film combines two parallel storylines – real and fictional, taken from the novel, which is read by the main character Susan. She receives a manuscript from her ex-husband – he wrote a story about a man whose daughter and wife were raped and killed. She reads this work and understands that feelings for Edward have not completely subsided – she still loves her ex-husband. There are quite a few scenes in the film that arouse the interest of the viewer, although it seems that the film itself is uninteresting and only film critics can watch it to the end in order to form their professional opinion about it.
While watching the movie, it may seem that there is nothing in common between the two storylines, but in fact one continues the second. Edward writes an interesting story about the family to admit his imperfection and lack of masculinity, which was the reason for the divorce. The writer admits that he missed somewhere the opportunity to show that he can save the family and show that he is a real man. But in fact, the longer in the forest – the more firewood: it becomes not entirely clear why this book was written. Although the viewer knows both the real events and the plot of the novel, which is revealed in the film, he cannot immediately understand what is the meaning of this film.
There are many scenes in the film that provoke the viewer to various emotional reactions: for example, the beginning of the film is interesting, but the end is quite unexpected. Separate scenes of events in Texas make even the most unimpressive viewer shudder. It seems that the viewer is not quite able to catch the thread of the plot and loses understanding of what is happening in the film, but closer to the end, the hero begins to understand what is really happening and takes control of all events. The viewer experiences with him and tries to simultaneously put together all the pieces of the puzzle to form a complete picture of the film.
With the help of his novel, Edward talks not only about his own shortcomings, but also about how his ex-wife’s life turned out – the reality is not at all like the dreams that Susan came up with in her youth. She became completely different from what she was, and did not quite correctly react to his talent. Susan did not consider Edward a talented writer, nor did she give him the opportunity to experience and understand what it is like to be a father. He took out his pain in the novel to show that he was very sorry that he never had a daughter, and that he completely lost his wife.
By portraying a gang of Texas thugs and their bullying of the hero Tony’s family, he showed what he experienced inside himself when Susan laughed at him and did not consider his occupation serious. Bandits mock Tony, rape his wife and daughter – what could be worse for a loving father and man?
It is because of such truthfulness and sincerity that Susan understands that Edward still loves her. She married a man who became the complete opposite of Edward. Because of this, her life has changed dramatically, but now she has a reason to think about whether she did everything right in her life and what else can be changed so as not to ruin herself completely.
The meaning of this film is that you need to be able to admit your mistakes in time and find a way to correct them. It’s never too late to ask for forgiveness and return everything to normal. At the same time, the main value should not be one’s own principles or desires, but an understanding of what the person who is nearby feels. The film suggests the idea that it is necessary to think not only about yourself, but also about those. who is nearby. They also experience with us all the events of our life, sometimes perceiving them more sharply, the plague was necessary. The film was shot in order to show the importance and value of feelings between people who go through life together with each other.
