MovieChat Forums > Yossi (2012) Discussion > Two points about film (spoiler alert)

Two points about film (spoiler alert)

posted 11 years ago by sidney76
9 replies | jump to latest

1) At first I wondered why Yossi refused to use his free massage. I mean, who doesn't love a massage? But then I realized, the reason why he did not want the massage is the same reason why he did not ever go in the water and the reason why he wanted the lights out when they were in bed. I believe Yossi has a extremely negative body image. He has gained some weight. Apparently he is having a difficult time with it.

2) I thought it was very interesting that Jagger's father could accept and deal with the information about his son's sexuality much more than Jagger's mother. The latter had a difficult time accepting it. The father did not. One would have thought it would be the opposite, especially for "macho Israeli" men. Most interesting.

I really loved this movie. Such exquisite, sensitive acting by everyone. Todah rabah v'kol hakavode to everyone involved with it!

[–] ducdebrabant 11 years ago

We can perhaps pinpoint the moment where his body image became that bad. Remember, we are shown Yossi being humiliated by the hot trick who owns the nightclub, when he shows up at the mans's apartment having sent him a younger picture. That was agonizingly painful to watch. The other man was beautiful, and his fallback position was that Yossi was too unattractive to make love to, but if he wants to, he can go down on the hot guy before he leaves. His role now is that of fellating troll. That's what he's been relegated to... somebody who has sex subserviently, if at all, without taking off his clothes.

[–] sidney76 11 years ago

You are right! Superb point! Thank you so much for catching that exact moment and for pointing it out. I really appreciate it.

[–] Brando10 11 years ago

That makes sense. I hadn't thought about it. On the other hand, the hot young Tom has no problem with his body. Guess he likes bears?

[–] WarpedRecord 10 years ago

Who doesn't love bears? Can't say I'd care for a massage, though – not that I've ever had one.

[–] chp1980 10 years ago

I also think one of the reasons he didn't want the massage was because he knew he would be touched and how that would re-ignite all of these old emotions of being touched by Jagger that being around Tom started to bring back to the surface. I kind of thought that he had been lacking human contact for a while and was scared of it because it had seemed to be so long he'd been without it.

[–] WarpedRecord 10 years ago

Indeed. I think he was out of touch with physical contact with others in general and that a massage would be too intimate. It also seemed like he had faced rejection in the few times he reached out to others after Jagger's passing — as evidenced the guy he met online. And of course, he really wanted to turn out the lights when he was with Tom; I suspect this is because he was wary of being seen, not seeing. So he had issues with intimacy and contact, to say the least.

Plus there were the incidents with the co-worker touching him while he napped and the other doctor trying to fix him up, but these were so far off the mark I'm not sure they even support this theory.

[–] bootblack987 9 years ago

We can perhaps pinpoint the moment where his body image became that bad.

I disagree. I think Yossi had negative feelings about his body years before he met up with the nightclub owner.

[–] thepartyoftea 10 years ago

Looks like everyone else nails point one well.
Point two, why did Jagger's father let Yossi see Jagger's room? There's a chance that the dad saw that Yossi was also grieving and feeling lost and needing closure and thought it would help with the healing to see what Jagger was like at home. Maybe the dad uses the room for the same reason, or he lost a friend or family member as well in the past?

[–] sidney76 10 years ago

Thanks very much. Good insight.