Well, I admit, I didn't pay as much attention during the movie as I probably should have.
But was his life more or less linear after the near-death experience?
He was supposed to save someone (his wife I'm guessing) -- but he didn't did he?
So if his out of order life experience had a purpose -- what was it?
I saw this film in March, 2012 at the Cleveland International Film Festival - liked it very much. This is what I took away.
Yes, his life was linear after his near death experience.
He DID save someone -- himself not his wife. Both he and his father suffered from narcolepsy (the disease does have genetic cause) and both were treated after the near-death experience. He forgave his father. The movie was set up for you to think he was going to save his wife but his wife was trying to save him.
Purpose should be obvious from my answer to the previous question.
I liked the premise of the movie very much more than its actualization. I would recommend it.
Everything that ted3 said, plus where he wakes up (during his car accident) his son Kevin (with the Asian woman) is just an infant. He becomes a part of his son's life instead of being the absent father he grew up with.
shareYeah, kind of like an "it's a wonderful life" magical thinking thing. As explained by his dead wife during the car accident, that moment there was a turning point of sorts.
Everything up until that time had been determined, and everything after (his abandonment of his son Kevin from the fling) was a possibility.
His dead wife Grace came at that point to save him, to help him out and help him avoid that path. Parts of that alternate future were shown, along with parts of his past up until then, to prove a point. Grace (in her different forms) said as much, that everything that he was experiencing was for a reason, to show him something.
Realizing this now, at the "out of body" experience of the crash, his learning period was over and time began for him linearly once more. And more important, he learned from what he was shown, the "gift" he was given to be able to change direction.
I thought it was refreshing in the sense that the goal of what he went through wasn't what we were all led to expect. One takeaway is that bad things can and do happen (Grace's death, his relationship with his father, etc). But those things are out of our control more often than not. What matters is how we react, the things we do, the love we share. Those are things we can change and that can make a difference.
So that's why this was an indie movie and not a big Hollywood production... I don't think those kinds of "spiritual" themes about self-reflection or whatever really fly in the major studios.