Altairdrifter

I decided to review this movie. I was not expecting what I experienced. I have not been moved by a movie, like this, since I saw Grave of Fireflies 20 years ago.

The movie is about nuclear attack, but neither the attack or medical realism is the focus of the movie. Probably a bit unrealistic in that aspect. We don't see much of the physical harm a fallout can do, like The Day After ( I was expecting something like that here too). This movie is more personal instead, and that is perfect in my opinion. One, more people can watch without being turned off the gore, and two it gets its message just as well either way.

Instead we follow a family, especially the mother narrate her life and the consequences she experiences. Jane Alexander was amazing in this.

I don't want to spoil it or be political, but I was crying by the end of it. I think mainly because I realized that families unnecessarily and helplessly going through this exact same thing right now, even though I try to not think about it, right here in 2025 (with or without nuclear war).

Now that I think of it I was moved probably Come and See, anyway this a different flavour. I think the difference is, in this movie, the Mother is trying to have a normal life in a hopeless situation, and that struggle hits differently.

It's also a crime this movie is hard to get access to outside the US.

The story in itself has potential, it could have been the Oscar grabbing kind.

The events and the desperation the main character feels and seems very plausible (until the ending that has too many loose ends).

Vanessa Kirbey is a great actress but perhaps too attractive for the role in my opinion, on the other hand I would not have watched it without her. I as a viewer can't relate to her, perhaps it would have worked if they showed more of her previous life but that would then it would be in the form a mini series. Or if they filmed it with real people like Chloé Zhao does, or made Vanessa's character older, think Nomadland with Frances McDormand.

We don't get to see the fallout and the consequences of her choices either. But realistically she stirred up a hornets nest through her survival attempt. A lot of events are left unfinished and we are left with questions.