guilt, forgiveness, atonement, redemption
At first I didn't intend to write something so long and in-depth, but then realized that this is a subject that is far too difficult with which to take the lazy way out.
Thomas is a young man in his early-to-mid 20s who has served 8 years in prison for killing a young boy. He always maintained that it was an accident - certainly, it was not an overly heinous murder but a negligent drowning - however, the child's body was never found, so nothing could be proved.
Thomas' crime was not committed by him alone, but also by a friend who curiously still remains in prison. It is not known why, but is presumably because Thomas had testified that he and his companion on that day only took the boy Isak to play on the riverbank, that Isak ran away from them, fell, hitting his head on some rocks, and frightened by all the blood, thinking the child was dead, Thomas' friend told him to "put the body in the water", so he did. The "water" was a fast-moving stream and Isak was swept away, never to be found.
The other primary character in this story is Isak's mother, Agnes. Agnes undoubtedly feels guilty for having left Isak alone in his stroller outside a busy ice cream shop while she lined up inside. The fact that she spilled some chocolate ice cream on her white sweater and went into the washroom to clean herself up also added extra time to the interval that she was gone. At the trial, she never believed Thomas and his friend's story, thinking that they each blamed the other and neither told the truth about what actually happened. Agnes is also a schoolteacher and a control freak (which is not a bad thing, certainly not in the context of this story).
She and her husband had adopted two little girls, both oriental, while Isak was presumably her natural son, having been blond like Agnes. It looked as if Anna and her family had managed to recover somewhat from the tragedy and move on a little bit - she is able to work and conduct business with a smile on her face - until she discovers that Thomas has been paroled.
Thomas has managed to secure a job as organist in a church. He is good-looking and plays the organ so beautifully that people are moved to tears. He almost wasn't hired, though. When he went to the interview he was told, "Sorry to waste your time, but we've decided to hire someone else." However, he asks if he can "look at" the magnificent old organ before he leaves, and then he plays a hymn on it. His playing is so moving, emotional and unusual that he is hired after all.
The church minister is a pretty young woman named Anna, who has a young son Jens, whom she gave birth to out of wedlock, and is a single mom. She tells Thomas that she was almost not accepted into the ministry because of her "sin" but thanks to the miracle of kindness shown to her by some of her superiors, she was hired.
Anna is smitten with the beautiful Thomas, and actually puts the moves on him first, while he shows some reluctance, even though he feels attracted to her too. They begin an affair. At first Thomas was extremely reticent, especially with Jens, her little boy, who has tried to befriend him. Jens would try to talk to Thomas and Thomas would turn away without replying. Jens hugged Thomas' leg and Thomas extricated himself and closed the door to separate himself from Jens. But Anna came to trust and have feelings for Thomas. She does not know about his past. The kindly deacon of the church knows, but he doesn't tell.
Agnes, the deceased boy's mother, discovers Thomas one day when she supervises a group of students while visiting the church on a tour. The group stops to admire Thomas' stunning rendition of "A Bridge Over Troubled Water" on the church organ. Anna recognizes him and that is when all hell breaks loose.
First, Agnes goes to the deacon and demands that Thomas be fired from his job, adding "How dare he play so well!" The deacon refuses, saying that forgiveness is most important and that is what religion is there for.
After this, Agnes freaks out. Her mood changes, she becomes irritable with her family and is inconsolable. Her oldest daughter begins to act out. When Agnes arrives late for a violin recital, the girl smashes her violin against the wall. She rebels. She pulls away when Agnes tries to hug her. She accuses Agnes of loving her "real" child Isak more than she does her adopted daughters.
Agnes' husband seems to be coping better than her, but is very protective of his wife. He accepts a position in another country, hoping that if he removes Agnes from her home he can also remove her from her pain. But he is worried that Agnes is starting to lose her sanity.
Agnes begins to stalk Thomas. She is horrified that he has struck up a relationship with Anna, a minister, and her son. She follows them into a supermarket and while Thomas is wheeling Jens around in a shopping cart, she approaches Anna abruptly, telling her that Thomas is not to be trusted, scaring Anna.
Eventually Agnes discovers that Thomas has left Jens alone outside his school while he goes back inside to retrieve something Jens left behind. Thomas at first wants Jens to come into the school with him, fully aware that when Isak had been left alone by his mother, it was the perfect opportunity for him to be kidnapped. But Jens assures him he'll be okay, so Thomas leaves him sitting on his bike.
Thomas retrieves the artifact - a little sculpture that Jens had made in class - and when he returns, Jens is gone. There are plenty of people around, but just like at the ice cream shop when the boys took Isak away, no one has seen anything.
It is Agnes who has kidnapped Jens. She takes him home to her house, where her two little girls think he is Isak incarnate. But when her husband comes home, he is horrified at what she has done and calls the church. Seemingly enraged, Anna takes Jens and drives off in her car with him, stopping at the river where Isak presumably drowned.
Thomas has been searching frantically for Jens. During this time Anna finds out everything about Thomas, about his past, and that Jens is gone. She physically attacks Thomas. But thinking correctly that Agnes has kidnapped Jens, Thomas races to her house. Told by her husband what she has done, Thomas follows her and when he sees her car parked at the riverbank, he jumps into it and tries to reason with her. But while they were arguing, Jens has fled from the car, frightened, running towards the stream (or river), where he falls in. Thomas dives in after him, into the swiftly moving current, and both are swept away.
Agnes runs along the riverbank, tracking them. Thomas manages to grab ahold of a felled log stretched across the stream, holding Jens' head above water. Agnes reaches them and manages to save the boy.
Just when I thought she was going to let Thomas drown, she pulls him to a better place along the log that he can hold onto and eventually he is able to climb out of the water.
Afterwards, when they are both sitting in Agnes' car again, Thomas tells her what really happened to Isak. He tells her that when he let him go in the river, he saw that Isak was actually alive, though he had thought him dead from the blow to the head. The little boy's eyes opened and were staring at him while he let Isak go and that vision has been haunting him all these years.
And this, in the end, was what Agnes needed in order to be able to leave the past behind. She needed to know the truth. Now that she knows she can begin to forgive Thomas and heal herself. Without forgiveness, her grief and pain would remain an open wound.
Like with all control freaks, Agnes' satisfaction comes with knowing that she is right. That she was right all along - that Thomas had lied at the trial and ever since then until she did what she did to make him tell the truth.
And she did help Thomas, who had been carrying the burden of guilt for years like a heavy chain around his shoulders. His stance was always stooped, his gait always slow. Even though he had atoned by doing his prison time, it wasn't enough, he needed Agnes' forgiveness as much as she needed to give it.
In the aftermath, Agnes is shown finally "letting go". Her family is going ahead with the move. When the younger of the two girls is shown burying Isak's shoes that Agnes had kept for 8 years, the older girl protests and tries to stop her. But Agnes says, "No - let her bury them."
We never know what will happen to Thomas and Anna, but when he returns Jens to his mother, they are all three seen to be happy and smiling.
The name of the film is "Troubled Water". It was made in Norway and Sweden, by director Erik Poppe and starring the wonderful Trine Dyrholm as Agnes and the beautiful Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen as Thomas. Everyone in this masterpiece was awesome.
This movie clearly shows the importance of the truth, and the power it has. Also of the healing nature of forgiveness, both for the forgiver and the forgiven, and how the burden of guilt can eat away at the human psyche, making things worse instead of better. Highly recommended. One of the best films I've ever seen. I wrote this long review because none of the ones I read at any of the usual sites did it justice.
Thomas is a young man in his early-to-mid 20s who has served 8 years in prison for killing a young boy. He always maintained that it was an accident - certainly, it was not an overly heinous murder but a negligent drowning - however, the child's body was never found, so nothing could be proved.
Thomas' crime was not committed by him alone, but also by a friend who curiously still remains in prison. It is not known why, but is presumably because Thomas had testified that he and his companion on that day only took the boy Isak to play on the riverbank, that Isak ran away from them, fell, hitting his head on some rocks, and frightened by all the blood, thinking the child was dead, Thomas' friend told him to "put the body in the water", so he did. The "water" was a fast-moving stream and Isak was swept away, never to be found.
The other primary character in this story is Isak's mother, Agnes. Agnes undoubtedly feels guilty for having left Isak alone in his stroller outside a busy ice cream shop while she lined up inside. The fact that she spilled some chocolate ice cream on her white sweater and went into the washroom to clean herself up also added extra time to the interval that she was gone. At the trial, she never believed Thomas and his friend's story, thinking that they each blamed the other and neither told the truth about what actually happened. Agnes is also a schoolteacher and a control freak (which is not a bad thing, certainly not in the context of this story).
She and her husband had adopted two little girls, both oriental, while Isak was presumably her natural son, having been blond like Agnes. It looked as if Anna and her family had managed to recover somewhat from the tragedy and move on a little bit - she is able to work and conduct business with a smile on her face - until she discovers that Thomas has been paroled.
Thomas has managed to secure a job as organist in a church. He is good-looking and plays the organ so beautifully that people are moved to tears. He almost wasn't hired, though. When he went to the interview he was told, "Sorry to waste your time, but we've decided to hire someone else." However, he asks if he can "look at" the magnificent old organ before he leaves, and then he plays a hymn on it. His playing is so moving, emotional and unusual that he is hired after all.
The church minister is a pretty young woman named Anna, who has a young son Jens, whom she gave birth to out of wedlock, and is a single mom. She tells Thomas that she was almost not accepted into the ministry because of her "sin" but thanks to the miracle of kindness shown to her by some of her superiors, she was hired.
Anna is smitten with the beautiful Thomas, and actually puts the moves on him first, while he shows some reluctance, even though he feels attracted to her too. They begin an affair. At first Thomas was extremely reticent, especially with Jens, her little boy, who has tried to befriend him. Jens would try to talk to Thomas and Thomas would turn away without replying. Jens hugged Thomas' leg and Thomas extricated himself and closed the door to separate himself from Jens. But Anna came to trust and have feelings for Thomas. She does not know about his past. The kindly deacon of the church knows, but he doesn't tell.
Agnes, the deceased boy's mother, discovers Thomas one day when she supervises a group of students while visiting the church on a tour. The group stops to admire Thomas' stunning rendition of "A Bridge Over Troubled Water" on the church organ. Anna recognizes him and that is when all hell breaks loose.
First, Agnes goes to the deacon and demands that Thomas be fired from his job, adding "How dare he play so well!" The deacon refuses, saying that forgiveness is most important and that is what religion is there for.
After this, Agnes freaks out. Her mood changes, she becomes irritable with her family and is inconsolable. Her oldest daughter begins to act out. When Agnes arrives late for a violin recital, the girl smashes her violin against the wall. She rebels. She pulls away when Agnes tries to hug her. She accuses Agnes of loving her "real" child Isak more than she does her adopted daughters.
Agnes' husband seems to be coping better than her, but is very protective of his wife. He accepts a position in another country, hoping that if he removes Agnes from her home he can also remove her from her pain. But he is worried that Agnes is starting to lose her sanity.
Agnes begins to stalk Thomas. She is horrified that he has struck up a relationship with Anna, a minister, and her son. She follows them into a supermarket and while Thomas is wheeling Jens around in a shopping cart, she approaches Anna abruptly, telling her that Thomas is not to be trusted, scaring Anna.
Eventually Agnes discovers that Thomas has left Jens alone outside his school while he goes back inside to retrieve something Jens left behind. Thomas at first wants Jens to come into the school with him, fully aware that when Isak had been left alone by his mother, it was the perfect opportunity for him to be kidnapped. But Jens assures him he'll be okay, so Thomas leaves him sitting on his bike.
Thomas retrieves the artifact - a little sculpture that Jens had made in class - and when he returns, Jens is gone. There are plenty of people around, but just like at the ice cream shop when the boys took Isak away, no one has seen anything.
It is Agnes who has kidnapped Jens. She takes him home to her house, where her two little girls think he is Isak incarnate. But when her husband comes home, he is horrified at what she has done and calls the church. Seemingly enraged, Anna takes Jens and drives off in her car with him, stopping at the river where Isak presumably drowned.
Thomas has been searching frantically for Jens. During this time Anna finds out everything about Thomas, about his past, and that Jens is gone. She physically attacks Thomas. But thinking correctly that Agnes has kidnapped Jens, Thomas races to her house. Told by her husband what she has done, Thomas follows her and when he sees her car parked at the riverbank, he jumps into it and tries to reason with her. But while they were arguing, Jens has fled from the car, frightened, running towards the stream (or river), where he falls in. Thomas dives in after him, into the swiftly moving current, and both are swept away.
Agnes runs along the riverbank, tracking them. Thomas manages to grab ahold of a felled log stretched across the stream, holding Jens' head above water. Agnes reaches them and manages to save the boy.
Just when I thought she was going to let Thomas drown, she pulls him to a better place along the log that he can hold onto and eventually he is able to climb out of the water.
Afterwards, when they are both sitting in Agnes' car again, Thomas tells her what really happened to Isak. He tells her that when he let him go in the river, he saw that Isak was actually alive, though he had thought him dead from the blow to the head. The little boy's eyes opened and were staring at him while he let Isak go and that vision has been haunting him all these years.
And this, in the end, was what Agnes needed in order to be able to leave the past behind. She needed to know the truth. Now that she knows she can begin to forgive Thomas and heal herself. Without forgiveness, her grief and pain would remain an open wound.
Like with all control freaks, Agnes' satisfaction comes with knowing that she is right. That she was right all along - that Thomas had lied at the trial and ever since then until she did what she did to make him tell the truth.
And she did help Thomas, who had been carrying the burden of guilt for years like a heavy chain around his shoulders. His stance was always stooped, his gait always slow. Even though he had atoned by doing his prison time, it wasn't enough, he needed Agnes' forgiveness as much as she needed to give it.
In the aftermath, Agnes is shown finally "letting go". Her family is going ahead with the move. When the younger of the two girls is shown burying Isak's shoes that Agnes had kept for 8 years, the older girl protests and tries to stop her. But Agnes says, "No - let her bury them."
We never know what will happen to Thomas and Anna, but when he returns Jens to his mother, they are all three seen to be happy and smiling.
The name of the film is "Troubled Water". It was made in Norway and Sweden, by director Erik Poppe and starring the wonderful Trine Dyrholm as Agnes and the beautiful Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen as Thomas. Everyone in this masterpiece was awesome.
This movie clearly shows the importance of the truth, and the power it has. Also of the healing nature of forgiveness, both for the forgiver and the forgiven, and how the burden of guilt can eat away at the human psyche, making things worse instead of better. Highly recommended. One of the best films I've ever seen. I wrote this long review because none of the ones I read at any of the usual sites did it justice.
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