MovieChat Forums > Julieta (2016) Discussion > the guilt issue (spoilers)

the guilt issue (spoilers)


OK, this film dealt with the issue of guilt - specifically, Julieta's guilt over the man on the train committing suicide and her guilt over Xoan's death in the storm. It's certainly an interesting issue to tackle in a film. HOWEVER: (1) Julieta had no reason to feel any guilt whatsoever over the man's suicide. She genuinely did nothing wrong. A strange man comes and sits next to her and tries to start a conversation with her. She feels uncomfortable and gets up and goes into another part of the train. She didn't verbally insult the man. She wished no harm to him. She simply did not feel comfortable sitting alone with him and talking with him. Then when she finds out he allowed himself to be run over by the train...she feels guilt??? Makes no sense imo.
(2) Her husband's, Xoan, death. She finds out he's had an affair with another woman. He admits it. She's understandably upset about that. Still upset, she tells her husband she is going to her employer to get an assignment. He tells her, as she's walking out of the house, that he's going to go fishing. The storm is very bad and he ends up dying at sea. Why does she feel so much guilt over this? What was she supposed to do - not be upset that her husband has been cheating on her? She did not swear at him. She did not tell him awful things. She just got upset and visibly angry and got out of the house and went to her place of work to gather herself. Xoan chose to stupidly take the boat out in a storm. She did absolutely nothing to bring about his death.

The filmmakers should have given us legitimate circumstances over which Julieta came to feel guilt.

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You have valid points... I do agree with you about how she didnt yell or scream when finding out abut him and Ava, and leaving without a word.
But this is the deal...When you lose someone, when someone you love dies, you are only left with that last encounter..that last fleeting moment when you saw that person for the last time. There is always some sort of guilt..The what ifs, the should haves.
Because once someone dies, you cant turn back. You cant change it, its permanent. So your mind always runs through the scenarios of how it couldve turned out different if "only". If only I did that, or this.... Its an awful torment many of us go through. Perhaps every single one of us will eventually go through this guilt in some way, someday.

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