Roeg at his subtle best: The Fake Redemption
He is so cleaver and his movies are so complex, thematically and visually that you almost accept her redemption at the end, were it not for the fact that her husband died.
Roeg is pursuing much the same themes as in Don't Look Now, it's marvelous how he manages to use the same theme but change the setting, the story SO much. The loss, the guilt/bad conscience that drive his main characters insane.
And the use of religion, her vision of Mary at her own age, when she failed the religious promise, the Jesusly resurrected husband, the shroud. The religion that came too late for Russell's character. The crosses that are everywhere in the movie - faith or death. Two sides of the same matter to her. To us? Do we really believe he really didn't die?
How do we know the husband dies? Is it a matter of faith? No, not visually, the close to final shot, Russell running through the corridors of the motel towards the light and TRUE redemption, but just before she reaches the light, she turns right into the chamber of her dead husband. Remaining in darkness forever. Or in faith. It's up to yourself. THAT'S faith. It's THAT hard to believe. The audience tested. WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?
He is such a genius, years before von Trier, Almodovar and Minghella, and classes above Sixth Sense.
SUDDENLY I saw the cold and rook-delighting Heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of that and this
Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment?