There is a certain moment in the film when the son is in the nursing home and he goes to the television and turns it off because he sees himself in the image.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It is about this very abstract sense of displacement that he feels the moment he turns off the television.
Once you're done with the film, it's almost like empty nest syndrome: your kid has moved out of the house.
When the machine of a human being is turned on, it seems to produce a protagonist, just as a television produces an image.
As Peter Bogdanovich would say of Paper Moon: Ryan's wonderful in it, and he sat there and watched the kid steal the picture.
That is where the irony of the film comes off, in terms of the language it employs - where he tries desperately to be a 'TV Dad,' to give advice and it's so pat it becomes ridiculous.
At its best, film should be like a ski jump. It should give the viewer the option of taking flight, while the act of jumping is left up to him.
It goes back to a style of moviemaking I remember seeing as a child, in movies like The Man With The Golden Arm, which I think was shot all on a sound stage.
It's become a habit to make films where the father is absent. My father impresses me, but the father figure does not.
As an actor, if you're just sitting and staring and you don't know who you are in your own mind, it's vacant. And sometimes the camera is an X-ray machine, it can pick it up.
Originally the film opened with Ryan in the doctor's office, being told his wife is dying. Then we see him walking the streets, and the story is told in flashback.
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