MovieChat Forums > Till Human Voices Wake Us (2002) Discussion > Why Did Silvy? (SPOILER QUESTION)

Why Did Silvy? (SPOILER QUESTION)

posted 19 years ago by lucagrazi
9 replies | jump to latest

I just saw this movie for the first time, but was distracted. Why did young Silvy die? Did she let go of his hand? Or did Sam forget and let go of her hand?

[–] PaperStreet18 19 years ago

I believe she let go of his hand. Didn't Ruby (Helena) say "I let go..."?
I saw it at 3 o'clock last night, so I might have been half out of my mind, but I think she let go.

[–] Riphug 19 years ago

I think she let go too. She seemed particularly melancholy as she watched people at the dance, so perhaps she had been suffering from masked depression and decided to end it all.

I'm not a psychiatrist. Nor do I play one on TV.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] joeestlinbm 19 years ago

I've watched the movie at least 10 times, and Ruby did say I let go.

A man can be no more than what he is.

[–] KitMagic 19 years ago

It really looked to me as if they both let go, accidentally, in the moment, etc.

I saw it as accidentally letting each other slip through their fingers
(too literally, in this case).

I think they were just both sort of drifting, daydreaming, etc.

And if one had held on, it might not have mattered if the other accidentally let go.

Anyway, it didn't look deliberate to me.

Kit =^__^=
=^__^=

[–] Kylie6 17 years ago

I didn't see the "I let go" moment as intentional. It could have been a moment of her allowing herself to die -- or, as another poster indicated, the more emotional idea of figuratively letting each other "slip away."

However, I attributed the accident to Sam releasing his hand to point at the shooting star. As soon as he did it, I knew what he had done. The problem I have with the whole scenario is the fact that Silvy was floating fine on her own before Sam released his hand. He wasn't suspending her anymore. As someone who has taught swimming, unless she panicked (which we didn't see and Sam didn't notice) she would probably have been able to continue floating like that without his hand.

This brings us back to the figurative impact of the death. Her pain at not being able to live a normal life - or a normal life with him - factors into it. Aside from the physical reality of whether she would have simply dropped like a stone, the center of the incident was her hand slipping away from his and he couldn't find her again ...

[–] littledutch88 17 years ago

I just saw it... I remember the "I let go" piece...

I dunno what to make of it. She seemed so sad all of the time, unless she was on that bike with Sam, she had that touch of melancholy.

But I got the impression that he had let go to point at the shooting star, and she had drifted away.

I agree with the other poster, she would have kept floating, especially because she was keeping herself afloat anyway. If you watch, the hand that isn't holding Sam's is keeping her up.

Her death just seems, to me, to be more poetry than actual solid event. Like a metaphor for death... that's actually what I got out of a lot of the movie; i.e, her name being an anagram for "Bury Me", and such. That whole death scene, flipping back and forth between past and present, was like the ending of a story or a poem... it was poetry.

And what a beautiful poet! Between the lighting, the camera angles, the editing, and the script... I was sobbing by the time he pushed that boat out into the water.

She may have "let go", but she didn't realize that in letting go, he would try to hold onto her. So she had to help him "let go" too.

I LOVE poetry!

"In faith, lady, you were born in a happy hour."
"No, my lord, truely. My mother cried. But then there was a star danced, and under that was I born."

[–] sm-faiz 16 years ago

After seeing the falling star, the boy was too much in ecstasy and he accidently let go ... the girl, also, could have shouted or made sound, but she didn't as she was also depressed .. depressed because of her disability and also MAYBE the though that the boy let her hands go ... so in the end, she dies ...

For a moment there, i put myself in the position of the boy and the pain he was feeling, i could feel too ... it was really heartbreaking..

[–] airicat 15 years ago

She apparently got sucked into a current...which made her let go of his hand. Which is also why he (and the cops) couldn't find her body.