1/21/19 - Shoplifters (2018) 8-/10

Idiosyncratic, in character, culturally, and emotionally, but if you let that door slide open this film will steal your heart. A quiet delicacy of fractured emotions as everyone is holding back at each turn, the pain, the fear, the clutching at hope and most of all, the sting of loneliness. The fragile and incomplete connections between people is the heart-string of this film, plucked and played to perfection. With each relationship there is choice, consequence and cultivation; all to escape the drowning waters of a silent society and inaudible inadequacy.

The strings binding this family together take the breadth of this film to build and when they are cut, it is an emotional demolition. Such fun interplay that builds each character and bond w everything put into this film being so meaningful and intentional; constructing this familial unit. I am not sure if others would find some of the revelations cheap or expected, but I found myself electrified when we are given the fascinating puzzle piece to redefine what we had seen and instill such greater depth to all of these situations. It builds a fascinating wrinkle into the murky flesh bonding the hearts and minds present.

I loved the unraveling ending, sucking us back down into the bleak mire. Unrequited communions and dangling bonds, taken away by the careless actions and unavoidable consequences. A saddened misanthropic realism crashes back down onto all involved. It was a logical conclusion despite the flickering hope stoked inside the viewers mind, willing just love to win the day.

Ultimately, this is a film about choosing to love. Is love something that is free to take, like an unsold good, or must you buy it with truth and righteousness? Does that shop of affection close down if it is lifted too often? Is it rightfully yours just because biology deems it so, or does the nurture of it all take a holy precedent? These questions peek through, but Shoplifters slowly coils you in an entrancingly satisfying blanket of warmth and affection from the bitter cold of the world around. It is an extraordinary film and a joy, bittersweet though it may be.