
Longing is a remake of an Israeli film that has already won awards, and it has been written and directed by the same person, Savi Gabizon. Alternatively, it could just as easily be called “Grief,” or maybe even the Portuguese word for it, “Saudade,” which is a word for the fallewangst, the sadness of yearning for something one has lost and never will possess, only hinders joy. Richard Gere stars as Daniel Bloch — a rich still to be married businessman, sitting in the back of a limo, managing his time like a busy schedule and labor giving instructions to his secretary – the one and only nice and simple way to describe any corporate personality. For example, when someone like this begins in a movie, we know something bad is about to happen, and this control will quickly diminish, leaving the rest of the film attempting to regain lost control.
Twenty years are gone since Daniel parted ways with Rachel (Suzanne Clément)- a story that makes sense towards the climax. He is already late for their meeting at the café `because he advised that they should only meet once which is for forty-five minutes’, and he is evidently over-exaggerated on what he believed he would do. Hes quite clearly augmented things with the intention of actually saying sorry should there be a need for closure for him. And on the other hand, she has something different from what he expects.
She removed to her country in Canada after their separation. However, she knew that she was expecting a baby, but never broke the news to Daniel and also the reason saying that was because he had made it clear that he did not want to be a parent.
She tells him about and the baby boy she named Allen. This piece of information astounds Daniel, but before he has a chance to pose questions or indulge in fantasizing, Rachel interjects saying that Allen died in a car crash.
Daniel would like to find out something about a son he never met. He travels to Canada and expects to stay there only a couple of days. However, he extends his stay as he now goes out of his way from offering banal sympathy to looking deeper into the ever mysterious life of his biological son. The emotional urge to interact with his son in a way, any way, or at least create something in his name is excruciating.
Gere is superb when it comes to understanding Allen’s acquaintances and reacting to unsettling facts about him. One gets a keen sense of his loss especially when we see why he was quite adamant about his incapability in being a father figure. On the one hand, Daniel has to cover quite a distance from the perfect all known Allen to some unpleasant and scary truths about him. He begins by reverting to the work style that has worked for him over a period of over three decades. He first meets Daniel in Canada, a boy Mikey (Wayne Burns) who happens to be his classmate and Allen’s best friend. The topics of their debate change in no time starting from Allen’s musical accomplishment, Daniel asking D, ‘what sports, if any, does he like?’ blasting Allen, to Mikey asking for 5,000 dollars for a drug dealer’s debt. Things have gone terrible and thus the act is very much required that due to lack of discretion, the situation has been created but the best Daniel will say is that he will ‘try’ as he has used that many times in his career.
All of Allen’s acquaintances start with some reassuring, but platitudes as in “Daniel, there’s nothing that you can do here.” However, when Daniel requests for more particulars, he rather struggles to digest the information. First, he has his own self-defense and maintains that a very rude scrawl is a ‘love poem’ to someone very special who is a teacher portrayed by Diane Kruger. Then he suffers an even more shattering loss. It is interesting that the most important communication for Allen, the most compelling moments in the film, he has with three other fathers, two of whom are also in deep sorrow. It is only at such times that Daniel finally shifts from a frantic desire to bring the deceased Allen something useful in matters to calm pragmatic tenderness instead. It also puts him in contact with fathers who are nurturing, calm and committed. He learns from them, and in a way, undergoes fathering vicariously. Only then does he manage to give expression to the reservations that made him set his course not to be a father.
As much as it surprises all and sundry, it does appear perhaps a little too convenient that every single person Daniel happens across possesses exactly the insight that he requires and the timing is never off.
This partially explains his ever-growing willingness to let other people in, as the businessman who has always been his only mode of thinking begins to give way to feelings emotions.
Bring me to the second, this film should not be taken too literally, it would be a mistake. We see how Allen’s ludicrous demented and degrading work gets acted out in a dream by Daniel and hear some of Allen’s remarks about his choices, which, for the best, put others in unfortunate situations, and for the worst, are dramatically devoid of decency and integrity. There are many viewers who will not only be surprised by Daniel’s final act of addressing his issues, but many will even consider the act to be quite odd in nature.
There is no docu-drama or any recreation of ‘reality’ that Gabriel is making here. “Longing” is how grief overstocks the rational thoughts and the natural strength of one to sometimes make you return back where it all begins. This conclusion will be lesser, but in some way, it will also be the one that completes you.
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