Vehemently disagree.
He's carrying out the alpha-male model; strong, success-driven, squash emotions down.
You're guessing some mental disorder because we only really see him after his wife dies and begin to see him unravel.
He doesn't know anyway else to behave because it's all he knows. Witness his own father- spraying his lawn at 7am while his son is knee-deep in the loss of his wife. It's not uncommon for men to pass these traits down through rote learning. A son will mimic his father as the role model he sees daily.
But as he begins to explore his grief and pain, he begins to unleash his own personal hell on those around him. The only caveat is- he doesn't know he's feeling grief OR pain. He's never allowed himself to feel this so it's all very.new. Which would be the reason you're willing to assign a personality disorder- instead of recognizing the real tragedy of the story, and the final swan song of the end.
The moral of the story is, we all grieve, sometimes it just takes a while for some to feel it.
Davis, Chris, Phil. They all are grieving, and all in very different ways, none of which is wrong and none of which is exactly right for anyone but them.
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chwalker-christopher
7 years ago
The suggestion that Jake's character might be someone high-functioning on the autism spectrum is intriguing. When he tells the doctor that his numbness has lasted "for years," that one detail might go along with that.
But I think the much more straightforward interpretation is that most of what we see is an individual's reaction to shock and grief.
I could relate to the extended period of emotional numbness, poor focus, and reduced interest in other people's expectations. I hung around for a few weeks on a website where bereaved people share experiences and concerns. I don't remember anyone saying they had chopped up their house. But there was a wide range of attitudes and experiences reported there. The two commonest things mentioned were that the other folks around you expect you to 'bounce back' much more quickly than is possible, and that short-term memory is likely to misfire. "Widow's brain," they called the latter.
I think I agree with the many comments (among those who liked the picture at all)
that Jake's performance is really strong, but other weaknesses erode the effect of the picture.
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