MovieChat Forums > Trauma (2004) Discussion > A very plausible explanation for me *SPO...

A very plausible explanation for me *SPOILERS ABOUND*


I think the main thing that confused a lot of people, myself included, is that a lot of this movie involves Ben's hallucinations. I've seen many movies that do this much better than Trauma did, but I will say that I don't feel as cheated now that I'm pretty sure I have it figured out. I don't necessarily agree with the many posters who say it's "easy to follow" or "straight-forward," though. I think a few things are pretty clear, but the movie could have done a better job in illustrating it. I suppose the point may have been to make us experience watching the movie the way Ben is living the movie, but I don't know if that trick works in film as well as directors and writers like to think it does. All that diatribe aside, here goes...

I think it is fairly clear that Charlotte is real. However, I think there are a few clues that allude to what really happened. When Ben is splashing water on his face, he "hallucinates" that the water turns to broken glass and he has cut his hand on it. This is the point at which he has killed Charlotte, likely in his apartment. I agree with the other posters who say he dumped the ant farm on her head, shattering it. Remember, later, when he's talking to the "psychologist" he says that his ant farm is missing. This is because he's already killed her with it. Seeing the broken glass and his bleeding hand, his mind STARTS hallucinating and he sees Elisa behind him. That's when he takes off running down the hallway to chase after her.

There are two key elements in this scene that brought it all together for me. First of all, the caretaker tells him that his hand is bleeding. His hand wouldn't really be bleeding unless he had cut his hand on the real broken glass from the murder. Then when he gets back into his apartment, Charlotte comes out and asks him if he's okay. He looks at his hand, and when he looks up she's gone. Starting with that encounter, that's the point at which his mind starts imagining that Charlotte isn't dead due to the overwhelming guilt at killing her. From that point on, Charlotte is a hallucination. In fact, I believe that's when she disappears for a while in the movie, and when she returns, she's only seen when it's just Ben and her. Before that, she's in the park and at the medium's "shows" or whatever you would call them.

If you notice at the end, three of the doors in the morgue have bloody handprints. These are probably from him stashing Charlotte's body and the broken ant farm down there in the three different slabs. Also, this explains why the ants are all over her body and why many of his hallucinations throughout the rest of the movie involve the ants all over the place.

His unconscious mind starts trying to cope with what he's done before revealing it to him, so it weaves a story based on what really happened. A story that, to him, will be more acceptable and won't make him feel AS guilty. I've studied psychology, so I know that the unconscious mind can convince a person of almost anything if it feels the truth will be too much to handle. This also ties into what Elisa said about him constructing his own realities about failing art school and being fired from the museum. So, his sessions with his imaginary psychologist are his mind's way of convincing him of certain things that are necessary for his own reality to form. The most import of those is that Charlotte isn't real. This will allow him to construct the story in his head that he kills her because she's just a hallucination. This is a happy ending for Ben because she's not a real person, so there's no need to feel guilty. So, the entire killing seen in the movie is his mind's reenactment of a more "acceptable" death for Charlotte.

The bloody hand when he's confessing to the imaginary psychologist is because he puts the spider in her mouth when she's already been dead and in there for a while and then tosses the shoes around. I'm assuming it's because of his obsession with Charlotte's Web and doesn't really hold any deeper meaning than that. His friend overhears him and calls the loony bin to take him away. He may not have even figured out that Ben killed anyone until the caretaker finds Charlotte's body. And the whole shoe thing is explained in the director's commentary and actually has nothing to do with the physical story. It's just a metaphor that's a bit overdone if you ask me.

And I assume the reason he killed Charlotte is because he was all pissed at her because the medium said that Elisa is still alive and Ben thinks she's playing a trick on him and getting a good laugh at his expense. This drives him to murderous rage and he kills her out of pure anger. Then, when the realization starts to kick in as he's washing her blood off of himself in the sink, that's when all the other things I've already mentioned kick in.

Bottom line, in my opinion, is that Elisa, Carrie, and Emery are the cause of this whole mess because they won't let Ben in on the little secret that Elisa's actually alive. And the reason Lauren's death is necessary is because all the drama surrounding that is was causes Carrie and Emery to convince Elisa that it's better to let Ben think she's dead while the three of them are trying to cope with all the sadness surrounding Lauren.

Any questions? ;)

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That's an interesting angle. I love that there are no right or wrong answes with this movie and that a lot of it is left to your own perception.

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I agree with this. There are lots of people moaning about not getting it, but it's a subjective story, and you will never really get a clear picture, that's part of the appeal of the film to me. It's all about Firth doing something very different

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I agree with the op... that I do not think the type of film from a crazy person works as well as the directors think... it just makes things confusing, and hard to figure out what is real, and what is not..

I like Colin Firth.. and he did a good job here...




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