“Would you like a drink?”
What might you say to the man who killed your three children? What could you imagine him saying in reply? The second of two films on our list about grieving parents, Blake Robbins’s The Sublime and Beautiful takes a premise we’ve seen before and makes it fresh by reminding us of how messy and non-cinematic grief truly is. Pay close attention and you’ll notice that David Conrad (Robbins) is already heading for–may even be in–an existential crisis before another man’s weakness sideswipes his life. Gaining weight, sleeping with his graduate assistant, wondering (as Robbins said in an interview) if “this is all there is,” the pre-accident David senses that he has already lost something important before additional important things are taken away. David flails in his pain, seeking answers in a silent church and at the end of a rifle. Whether the mid-life crisis will be a wake-up call or the beginning of a downward spiral is an unanswered question. For those in the first waves of grief, the answer may not even matter much. But it matters to us, and we pray that David can hold on long enough to start living again. — Kenneth R. Morefield (1More Film Blog)
Arts & Faith Lists:
2014 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #6