Empty Nest

Narrative, 2008

Director:  Daniel Burman

Argentina, France, Italy, Spain/ Hebrew, Spanish with subtitles

91 minutes

Here we have yet another in a long line (it's not even the only one in this festival) of stories of boomers in mid or late life crisis as they struggle to keep an empty-nested, autumnal marriage alive.

This film lost me pretty quickly.  I've seen this movie about a dozen times recently under different names.  Plus starting right off watching an old man ignore his still beautiful wife right in front of him (who by the way gave up her career to have and raise his three kids and support him so he could become a famous writer) to leer like a pervert at every attractive woman half or even a third of his age, didn't really warm me to the character.  He was totally lost in fantasy after fantasy about these woman, leering, making them uncomfortable, and even stalking them, completely oblivious to how disgusted they could be to see that heated gaze on them from a man old enough to be their father as they went about their daily lives.  Only when he pushes his fantasies to the limit does he slowly realize that one person's dream can often be another's nightmare.

The only interesting moment I found was when a friend advised him to use the creativity he had as a writer within his marriage.  Think of new ways to get to know who your wife is now, reconnect with her, and fall in love with her all over again.  In the end it's his choice, reconnect with a woman who, since she's been emotionally abandoned, is now growing, changing, flowering, blooming, and becoming even more attractive to others than before while she still wants to take you with her, or lose her to someone who appreciates her and crash and burn when you realize middle-age fantasies are most often just that and end up alone.  Unfortunately, if you never empathize with the character, in the end you don't really care.

Lucy Cruell