“Why am I here?” she asks her sister. Edee is a woman who is suddenly
without her family after a traumatic event. So traumatic that she cannot
discuss it. The movie opens with a woman in an upscale therapist office
silently watching the grains of sand in the hourglass fall.
Therapist: Edee, why did you decide to come here?
Edee: Emma, my sister, said you were magic.
The session continues. Slowly and with pauses. We learn that Edee is in the
session at her sister’s request.
Therapist: How are you feeling, right now, in general, what are you
feeling?
Edee: I’m feeling, um, that it’s really difficult to be around people.
Because they just want me to be better
We do not know how Edee lost her loved ones (until the last few minutes of
the movie). She has flashback memories of her son and husband so we are
aware they are dead. Her grief is overwhelming and numbing. She tells the
therapist that in the beginning she shared her feelings with others. But she
stopped.
Edee: Why would I want anyone to share in that? They can’t anyway.
Therapist: But that means you are alone with your pain.
And that seems to be all that Edee can manage. Being alone with her
pain.
Edee is a “city” woman who packs up and moves to a remote cabin in the
wilderness. Edee cuts off all human contact. She tosses her phone into the trash, which severs all ties with the world
including with her loving sister. It is unknown to me if her goal was to heal herself or to “not be
here” – which she almost succeeded at on more than one occasion (warning:
some of the scenes are uncomfortable - a potential trigger for some.)
She clearly should not have survived her self-imposed “cure”. She was
clearly ill-prepared to wander off into the wilderness and exacerbated the
risk by having her rental car picked up. From the flashbacks we know that
she has been fishing and has that skill. And she seems to intend to provide
food for herself from the land in addition to the very small amount of
canned goods she brought along. From a drawing in crayon, we know that in
the past there was someone who wanted to go fishing and live in the
mountains. Perhaps this is why she chose to move to this off-grid
cabin.
Edee (Robin Wright) is found by Miguel (Demian Bichir) nearly frozen and
starved to death. Miguel and Alawa (a nurse from the nearby small town)
nurse Edee back to health.
Edee continues to exclude people from her life, but allows Miguel just
enough contact during infrequent visits to teach her how to trap food and to
hunt game. After all, Miguel said that he would respect her wishes. He would
teach her to trap and to hunt in the fall. Then he would leave her alone.
Miguel is a man of his word. The seasons go by: planting, foraging, harvest,
hunting, and a return to snow. The years go by. Two years.
Land [DVD]Check Price
My Thoughts About This Amazon Prime Movie.
I rented this movie on Amazon for far too much money. I regret having spent
that much for an Amazon Prime rental. However, as odd as it sounds, if/when it
is released in an inexpensive blu-ray or CD version I will buy it and watch it
again.
The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful. The cabin scenes were filmed in
Alberta, Canada atop Moose Mountain.
I found it to be well-acted and I think the messages related to grief and
trauma are supremely important reminders to us all. Each person handles
depression, trauma, and grief differently. Not every mainstream treatment is
effective. And most of all, depression, trauma, and grief are very painful. It
is not easy for people to just “be better.”
Some reviewers complain that Land was “slow”. And that the character
was “egotistical” and “selfish”. Some reviewers complained about the choppy
flashbacks. I found all of those things to be a realistic part of the
experience of many people with debilitating depression. Severe depression does
not allow the person to think of others. It impacts the person’s thoughts and
their 5 senses. Memories can be intrusive – sometimes welcomed, sometimes not.
I think the “slowness” of the movie was perfect. Yes, it was slow-paced. I
don’t believe the movie was meant to be an action/adventure movie. True
depression and hopelessness is like swimming through neck-deep mud. It is
restricting. People are busy trying to survive each moment of every day.
I felt the pace of movie portrayed this feeling perfectly.
I only wish that the movie had been longer. That we would have been spectators
of more details of the journey, the landscape, and of each season. And of the
lessons taught by Miguel.
I hope the message of the movie is, and is understood as; depression, grief,
and trauma are difficult things to get through. But they are survivable. And
while every person has an individual response and recovery, it is better when
it is not done alone. Each person who gets through it has the ability to be
meaningful to the next person who is struggling.
Related Link:
This movie reminded me a bit of Wild with Reese Witherspoon. The movie was based on the written memoir
of Cheryl Strayed and was another story of how a woman left civilization after
experiencing severe grief and loss and ending up finding herself. You
can read my review of Wild
here.
The effects of loss and trauma on a human are not pretty. And yet many people
not only survive, but thrive after they get through it. These two stories are
examples of surviving the nitty-gritty and finding the reasons to live.
Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN), Esty (Awin), and/or Zazzle Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”
