MovieChat Forums > The Future (2011) Discussion > did the boyfriend only imagine the scene...

did the boyfriend only imagine the scenes while he stopped time?

posted 12 years ago by ahuramazda
9 replies | jump to latest

(WARNING: SPOILERS)

i have a question: did hamish linklater's character only imagine the advanced affair scenes between miranda, david warshovsky's character, and his daughter while he stopped time (just after he found out about the affair, and then talks to the moon)? or did all those scenes really happen?

some of them seem so unreal (like when miranda and david are in bed, or the whole story about the daughter sleeping in the garden...).

[–] silent-skies 12 years ago

I was wondering about the same thing. The entire film was like one long St. Vincent music video.

[–] mosdefkisha-1 12 years ago

I think it was his imagination. He couldn't deal with Sophie leaving, so he was obsessed with living in the moments before she broke up with him. But life was still going on. He was unable to come to terms with what was happening to him. Great film!

[–] Jorge_Dunst 12 years ago

yup. that was it.

[–] galofobia 12 years ago

I think the point was to make it ambiguous. Not in a lame "it's up to the viewer's imagination" kind of ambiguous, but really ambiguous, because they couldn't go pick Paw Paw up, and they obviously hadn't seen each other in a while when she returns to their apartment at the end, so these are very practical consequences to something that was only happening in his mind. So the point was to make it all very symbolical through this sudden leap to surrealism, and not so tied-down to the story of a young-couple-going-through-crisis or whatever.

[–] Mr_Nin 12 years ago

There's really nothing ambiguous about it.
In the conversation between Jason and the Moon, the moon tells him that time is still moving and it's 4 days later. Jason replies that when he "starts the clock" again she'll be gone and he's not ready for it.
Or something along those lines, I haven't seen the film in 6 months.

[–] taxvictim 12 years ago

That's what I was thinking... the boyfriend stopped time after finding out about the first tryst, and those strange scenes of her affair and life with the other guy were all imagined.

Also, is it possible the old guy (blow dryer seller, moon voice) is supposed to be an older version of Jason? They showed a scene where he had the same Escher print, and there was a collection of hippos. (Maybe the unseen wife is old Miranda/Sophie?)

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 11 years ago

Very dreamlike (Lynchian), I agree.

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[–] jaydub99 9 years ago

Maybe. My initial take was that the stopping time was actually symbolic. He was freaking out so he imagined (wished) that time could stop and he could control what was about to happen. In reality, he was just in shock, walking around, living entirely inside his head from the breakup. And then he snapped out of it at the ocean. the moon conversation makes sense that way. But all that stuff I think really happened.

[–] MoviemanCin 8 years ago

Who knows?

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.