I had decided to
watch Aftermath, a film of 2017, as
if it were a challenge: I wanted to see if, even this time, Arnold
Schwarzenegger would have tried his hand at the usual revenge movie: a story based on the protagonist who loses one or
more of his loved ones and then goes back on criminals, making a slaughter (just
like Collateral Damage).
In fact everything
was announced as the usual soup; yet, the humble and modest aspect of Arnold in
the film should have made me understand, from the beginning, that it was much
more.
The architect Roman
Melnyk (Schwarzenegger) awaits with trepidation the arrival of his wife and his
daughter: the daughter is pregnant, and this makes the expectation more
meaningful, as he prepares the house with festoons and welcome gifts.
The man goes to
the airport to hug the two women again, but the atmosphere is not what he was
expecting to be: he is summoned to a secluded room and, once the doors are
closed, he is told that the plane on which the two women were traveling had a
terrible accident that caused the destruction of the aircraft and the
inevitable death of all passengers.
The film unfolds
on two parallel levels: the story of Roman, who, all at once, lost his wife, his
daughter and his grandchild, and the story of Jacob Bonanos, the flight
controller of the airport, who was responsible for managing all the routes on
the evening of the accident.
Here we
immediately highlight the two narrative sides: Roman's endless pain, mixed with
anger and helplessness, and the guilt-ridden pain of Jacob's remorse, as he
certainly wouldn't have wanted that tragedy to happen. And to tell the truth
the film shows us how Jacob is, as a matter of fact, a scrupulous, attentive
and professional operator: the accident really happens due to fatality,
certainly as a result of a distraction by Jacob, but all because of an inescapable
series of circumstances .
Roman decides to
go to the place of the disaster, mingling with the volunteer staff in charge of
collecting the remains and the wreckage of the plane: it is he who finds a
necklace belonging to his daughter and the body of the girl and his wife.
From that moment on he spends most of his time in the cemetery, next to the
graves of the women he loved and that he lost forever.
Jacob, on the
other hand, falls into a depression with no way out: he is now dependent on
psychiatric drugs and the anguish is devouring him from within. Moreover, as
all people accuse him of that unacceptable crime, he has received many death
threats. For this reason the company decides to give him a new identity and a
new job, in another location.
This does not
prevent Roman, after a few years, from succeeding, thanks to a detective, in
tracing the new identity and the new place where Jacob lives.
One evening Jacob
receives a visit from his wife and his son, from whom he lives separately.
Just that evening
Roman knocks on Jacob's door: Roman wants to show the photo of his wife and his
daughter to Jacob, only to have his apology for their death. Nothing else.
At that moment two
errors occur: Jacob reacts, at Roman's request, in an overwrought manner,
telling the man to leave, instead of trying to understand his reasons; for his
part Roman lets himself and be overwhelmed by the pain he feels inside and by the
anger that blinds him: while he is crying he stabs the ex flight controller,
killing him, under the eyes of Jacob's wife and son.
The ending,
however, is not really this: there will be some long-term consequences for such
a gesture; however, I will let you find them out by watching the film, although
it should not be difficult to guess.
If Jacob had
responded by revealing his inner torture, the torture to which he subjected
himself, to punish himself for what had happened, everything would have changed:
if he had only taken that picture in his hand, if he had only looked at it,
everything would have been different. If Roman would have let himself be guided
by his heart, and not by his instinct, he would have given Jacob a chance and would
not have killed him: our choices, dictated by the emotions of the moment, affect
our lives, for better or for worse.
The film is based
on a true story, that of Vitaly Konstantinovich Kaloyev, a Russian architect
whose relatives perished in the flight of Bashkirian Airlines number 2937. The
plane collided with flight DHL 611, on 1 July 2002. Two years later, the
architect killed the Danish flight controller Peter Nielsen, whom everyone
considered guilty for what had happened.
The screenplay by
Javier Gullòn (Enemy, Out of the Dark,
Hierro) is remarkable and humanly deep, while Elliot Lester’s film
direction is absolutely wise.
This film was able
to touch my soul strings and it was a surprise, given the premises: I finally
saw Arnold Schwarzenegger play a truly dramatic role; I saw the Terminator become a man, with all his
weaknesses, while the actor turned into an interpreter.
I believe I prefer
him this way: with a body that is no longer so striking, though still noteworthy,
with a long beard, with his wrinkles, even with his own particular tenderness.
And I hope to see more trials of actor like this in his future film career.
AFTERMATH Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN8toxhSn9Y
(The copyright of the drawings is owned by the author of the post)
No comments:
Post a Comment