savindwales

The Highest Brasil is a movie that deserves to be seen twice. Once to appreciate the story and the actors, and again to figure out the esoteric symbolism. On the surface it is a movie about a man who joins a self-help group only to find out that it is a course to train people on how to enter a magical island full of earthly delights.

Below the surface, there is a one-eyed lady (the eye of providence?), three men chained together (the initiate's chain?), a hard to find meeting location (a passage to the unknown?), and the travelers being blindfolded (masonic initiation?). I am sure there are more references that I have missed.

If you enjoy movies with esoteric themes, you will enjoy watching this movie and picking it apart. If not, you'll enjoy watching a movie about a man who is unhappy with his life and wants to change rather than accept his fate. Either way, watch this movie. A movie like this should not be slept on. It is an island, a Hy-Brasil, in a sea of cinematic slop.

The character Brendan plays the Habanera aria from Carmen over and over, and an aria from an opera about people living free from convention is the perfect soundtrack for this movie about people wanting something different in life.

I think a weaker cast would have seriously hurt this movie. I found parts of the plot to be frustrating and cliched, but the actors, their roles and motivations, and their deliveries on screen sold it for me.

There were some unexplained illnesses, a few standard comedy mix-ups, and an unexpected but not un-forshadowed twist at the end. The execution of this plot by a less experienced cast would have come across poorly.

Another strong point of this movie is its ability to extend the story beyond events and characters that normally would mean the end. More movies should have epilogues. You do not often see a narrative that extends past a few main characters, and I feel that sometimes movies are created without attachment to a greater space. This is not one of those.

A man retains a memory of an old life and cannot let it go. A doctor tries to figure out why the memory is persistent. The man continues his existence, unaware of his changed condition and trying to understand his new surroundings.

The story is told with dream logic. It paints mundane concepts on top of an unknowable in-between existence, and drops hints about the characters without telling too much. Is the man's bare room a reflection of who he was before? Is the woman's nicely decorated apartment a reflection of her previous existence?

The doctor's resolution to the man's problem is to burn the memories. He severs the man's ties to his old life, but the cycle continues anew in a different form.

This is one of the better movies I have seen this year and I look forward to more from the writer and director. The cast is also top-notch. The marketing team dropped the ball.