does anyone else think it's weird that, in the end, alex ends up with his "daughter"? and cybil shepherd's character is completely okay with it, knowing what she knows? that kind of threw a wrench in the works for me.
"we are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams..."
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"does anyone else think it's weird that, in the end, alex ends up with his "daughter"? and cybil shepherd's character is completely okay with it, knowing what she knows?"
Yes!
My inner narrator kept going "Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew..." through all scenes with Alex and Miranda.
I can't offer up any logical arguments for why it's wrong for Alex and Miranda to be romantically involved, given the different body and the different genetic make up and the convenient amnesia there at the end, but the two of them still trigger my incest squick something fierce, and yes, it's bloody WEIRD for Phillip and Corinne to be all pleased and approving and not at all weirded out by it.
I mean, I see how the movie is trying to spin it so it's acceptable, but it just doesn't work for me. They haven't established, in my opinion, that Louis and Alex are two different people. In fact, they've spent most of the movie trying to establish the opposite. So yes, icky.
But boy was Downey Jr. easy on the eyes (<--understatement of the day) in his twenties. I mean, he's still a sexy, sexy thing, don't get me wrong, but as a young man? Holy sex-object, people must have let him get away with murder on a daily basis. It can't be good for a person to be that pretty.
Hm... I think it might be time to take another look at Air America.
*dons bib*
The way I interpreted it, was based on the Cleopatra woman in the store. Souls are just connected, period. You meet the same souls throughout your life. They could be anything. They have no filial connection to you beyond 'love/hate like/dislike'. There is no such thing as father/daughter/sister/brother/lover/enemy to a soul -- those are earth plane connections that are created as your soul reincarnates, because the souls are drawn to each other. Souls don't have babies. Humans do.
For example, she says "You meet someone you don't like, it's probably your mother in law." -- Doesn't mean she'll ALWAYS be your mother in law when she comes back-- it doesn't mean that the souls are destined to do the same thing over and over and be with the same people over and over. She could come back as your annoying boss, or as an aggressive dog that bites you-- or what about families where a daughter hates her parents? It could be the same soul because it's just a soul that antagonizes yours, and will probably keep doing so throughout life because as she says; "It's all connected."
If you take the other interpretation, it doesn't make sense. It means lovers who died young, like in the movie, will always wait years for their reincarnated lover to come back to them because they're destined to have the same relationship over and over. So a 70 year old man who's wife dies is going to get with a 20 year old at 90 because their souls were 'soul mates' forever. It makes much more sense if the connection is made another way, but with the same people. I think that's why the injection exists. You don't know what Louie and Corinne's past life relationship might have been, if they even had one. Their souls may have been siblings. Or they may have been best friends. Either way, it's just souls that are connected. That's why I don't view it as weird.
When Louie went up to Heaven at the start of the movie, he didn't remember a past life connection. It's ambigious whether he had a past life prior to being Louie, but if he did, he definitely did not know about it. And there's no indication that he'll ever remember being Louie once Alex dies. Is he going to look like some weird Alex/Louie hybrid up there? I would assume not. Presumably, when he dies he'll appear as Alex in heaven, with Alex's memories, and Alex's love for Miranda. The Corinne love is gone. If he decides to reincarnate again, and they give the injection, he'll forget Miranda. I mean, if that happens, he could connect with anyone when he's reborn. Louie/Alex and Philip's soul might re-incarnate into a boy and girl and fall in love this time around because they were drawn to each other again. Who knows! That's how I viewed the concept of souls in the movie.
I know I'm thinking too much about it, and it's just a movie, but I felt the need to justify why I didn't think much of the Alex/Miranda relationship at all-- apart from it being kinda cute. Of course, I was just a kid when I watched it, but that's the way I felt they were taking it, and it made sense to me and worked for me because of the mystic scene. And to me, if you take away the physical relation connection, i.e. 'he's not in her Dad's body anymore, and they are not physically related and take it only as a metaphysical connection, i.e. souls are connected, then it's perfectly acceptable, even kinda nice.
Of course, Corinne doesn't know about the memory injection, nor that Alex has had it, so yeah, her reaction is slightly strange, considering she doesn't know if Alex is faking memory loss or not, or whether his memory will come back at an inopportune time. Also weird considering how into Alex/Louie she was prior. But I don't think it's all that weird for Corinne to be happy about it. They know first hand that Alex has a 'good soul', and he'd be good for Miranda and they love each other, even before he remembered who he was. At the end of the day, Alex and Miranda are no longer related, just connected. If I knew that's how souls worked, and Heaven worked, I'd be fine with it too. I'd think it would be beautiful to know that souls you love and are connected to you, and stay with you throughout life, but in different contexts. *shrug*
Didn't bother me. Mostly because it's just a movie and he's not really her dad in any meaningful way. His soul inhabited the body of her father. He never knew her as his daughter. He's lived a life separate from the man who was her father. Plus, did I mention it's a movie?
......................................
"I'm not used to feeling like I belong where I am."
--RDJ