In one important scene in Susanne Bier’s In A Better World, Christian confronts his father and blames him for the untimely death of his mother. The father tries his best to explain to his young son (maybe around 12 years old), why he had to say yes to the euthanasia of his mother.
In that scene, you could feel the hatred of the son towards his Dad, because he could not believe that his father would allow his mother to die that way. Even in a conversation scene with his own mother, the father said that his wife told him, ‘He (their son) would blame you (the father) for my (wife) death.’ I guess, the parents, especially the mother, failed to talk to their son, before they proceeded with the euthanasia. The mother was suffering from cancer and was already in too much pain and just wanted to end it.
I too, maybe, would react that way, if I was left in the dark. One day, she’s alive, the next day, they pull the plug on her. Of course, the kid would feel rage! I guess the parents were afraid that the kid would not understand and decided not to explain things. That made matters worse (and led to some catastrophic consequences in the movie).
As in any relationship, communication is needed, especially in a very delicate matter, like dying and death, especially too, if the person dying is the mother! Whether the kid can understand yet or not, at least he was told about it. Not being told really sucks and allows the kid to form his own opinion about things.
No comments:
Post a Comment