This is one of those films where you need to focus a bit on the dialogue and the hints that come into play throughout the film. The dialogue is quiet, and sometimes slow, with some unnecessary louder score over top of the very dialogue that requires paying attention to. If you're sitting with popcorn munchers and movie-talkers, you'll miss things easily. Alone, you can take in a lot more of the details.
I found that the story's moral was to count yourself lucky. All around the characters in the film are the delicate creations of nature from snowflakes and icicles, to beautiful, comfortable things like a warm home, pleasantly lived in. The chitter-chatter of a happy family at breakfast, the kettle whistling, and a good-morning / good-bye kiss from loved ones with the promise of seeing them again at the end of the day. All things done without a thought or a care - until one day every single one of these things is eliminated from the lens of Norah, the daughter who mysteriously leaves home to live on the streets in Toronto.
Every scene of the troubled girl's life is now ill at ease as she sits in unfavourable weather, has nothing comfortable to sit on, and no one to talk to, all the while holding a sign made of cardboard that reads "goodness". While all things good are within her grasp, she chooses not to accept them. Her family visits her daily, and does all they can to coax her back home, but she refuses to even talk to them.
The main character is actually Reta, Norah's mother who partially narrates the film, as per the novel of the same name by Carol Shields. Reta is surrounded by "goodness" and yet none of it matters while her daughter isn't there. She is constantly battered by stupid questions and toxic positivity by people outside of her circle. All of them too, surrounded by "goodness" that they take for granted.
All things become clear when the family comes to realize after Norah is hospitalized for sepsis that she has had burns on her hands the entire time that she's been gone. This is a detail they never knew, as Norah sat with garden gloves on for the entire time she spent on the streets. After speaking with the police, they put the pieces together that Norah had witnessed (and was partially involved in) an accident on Bloor Street in Toronto a few months earlier.
Norah had admitted she was happy that day, going about her business and passing people on the street with stories that she'll never know about. She makes eye contact with a Buddhist nun, dressed in a traditional robe, who blocks traffic on Bloor, near Markham in Toronto to sit on the street and pour a flammable liquid on herself. Then, takes a lighter and commits self-immolation.
Her sitting position on the street is a reminder of Thich Quang Duc from 1963, protesting the persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam. She did not react, and did not try to help herself. This film, and the book it was based on, seems to have been influenced by that, and the recent stories of the time in the late 00s and early 10s of other Buddhists committing self-immolation in acts of extreme protest.
The character of Norah recognizes the peacefulness of the nun, and is happy to have shared a brief moment where they lock eyes and smile before Norah enters a store and misses the start of the nun's violent act. After realizing what happened, Norah runs to her, taking the nun by the hands, which explains her burns, but in that moment, the nun also takes her hands as a sign of thanks. It seems Norah is the only person at the moment who the nun believes understands the beauty of religious expression and acceptance, whereas no one else had the courage to try to help the nun at all. Not in life, and now, not in her last moments.
The sudden shock of the ending of this film puts it all into perspective for us. As we sit on our comfortable couches at home, watching this film, free to do as we please each day - that is goodness, and that is exactly what Norah's message was all along during her phase where she chose to be mute, out of respect for those who could not speak, but also because of her own trauma. Norah also chooses to sit at the very spot the incident occurred at, sitting cross-legged, facing the street where the nun committed her act of self-immolation. It's a sign that they've connected, and Norah will never forget her sacrifice.
To me, this is a heavy message that reminds us of this, while packaging it as a book or film, the story of Unless makes us think and appreciate about all we have, and not to let a day go by that we don't say so.
I found that the story's moral was to count yourself lucky. All around the characters in the film are the delicate creations of nature from snowflakes and icicles, to beautiful, comfortable things like a warm home, pleasantly lived in. The chitter-chatter of a happy family at breakfast, the kettle whistling, and a good-morning / good-bye kiss from loved ones with the promise of seeing them again at the end of the day. All things done without a thought or a care - until one day every single one of these things is eliminated from the lens of Norah, the daughter who mysteriously leaves home to live on the streets in Toronto.
Every scene of the troubled girl's life is now ill at ease as she sits in unfavourable weather, has nothing comfortable to sit on, and no one to talk to, all the while holding a sign made of cardboard that reads "goodness". While all things good are within her grasp, she chooses not to accept them. Her family visits her daily, and does all they can to coax her back home, but she refuses to even talk to them.
The main character is actually Reta, Norah's mother who partially narrates the film, as per the novel of the same name by Carol Shields. Reta is surrounded by "goodness" and yet none of it matters while her daughter isn't there. She is constantly battered by stupid questions and toxic positivity by people outside of her circle. All of them too, surrounded by "goodness" that they take for granted.
All things become clear when the family comes to realize after Norah is hospitalized for sepsis that she has had burns on her hands the entire time that she's been gone. This is a detail they never knew, as Norah sat with garden gloves on for the entire time she spent on the streets. After speaking with the police, they put the pieces together that Norah had witnessed (and was partially involved in) an accident on Bloor Street in Toronto a few months earlier.
Norah had admitted she was happy that day, going about her business and passing people on the street with stories that she'll never know about. She makes eye contact with a Buddhist nun, dressed in a traditional robe, who blocks traffic on Bloor, near Markham in Toronto to sit on the street and pour a flammable liquid on herself. Then, takes a lighter and commits self-immolation.
Her sitting position on the street is a reminder of Thich Quang Duc from 1963, protesting the persecution of Buddhists in Vietnam. She did not react, and did not try to help herself. This film, and the book it was based on, seems to have been influenced by that, and the recent stories of the time in the late 00s and early 10s of other Buddhists committing self-immolation in acts of extreme protest.
The character of Norah recognizes the peacefulness of the nun, and is happy to have shared a brief moment where they lock eyes and smile before Norah enters a store and misses the start of the nun's violent act. After realizing what happened, Norah runs to her, taking the nun by the hands, which explains her burns, but in that moment, the nun also takes her hands as a sign of thanks. It seems Norah is the only person at the moment who the nun believes understands the beauty of religious expression and acceptance, whereas no one else had the courage to try to help the nun at all. Not in life, and now, not in her last moments.
The sudden shock of the ending of this film puts it all into perspective for us. As we sit on our comfortable couches at home, watching this film, free to do as we please each day - that is goodness, and that is exactly what Norah's message was all along during her phase where she chose to be mute, out of respect for those who could not speak, but also because of her own trauma. Norah also chooses to sit at the very spot the incident occurred at, sitting cross-legged, facing the street where the nun committed her act of self-immolation. It's a sign that they've connected, and Norah will never forget her sacrifice.
To me, this is a heavy message that reminds us of this, while packaging it as a book or film, the story of Unless makes us think and appreciate about all we have, and not to let a day go by that we don't say so.