There are three clues to this film: "mouse", "nina" and "cake". Using these three clues as the axis, claire completed the transformation from self-defeating and rejecting others to self-esteem, self-love and understanding.
First of all, the clue about "rats": in the movie, after seeing a mouse by the pool for the first time, Claire nearly drowned in the pool. Since the appearance of the mouse, Claire began to commit suicide again and again. Why is it a mouse? When she committed suicide on the rails, Claire mentioned that she used to play a mouse in the Nutcracker as a child (a fairy tale that fills the nutcracker by himself). It can be seen that the mouse here symbolizes the dark side that is suppressed and dormant in the depths of darkness. There is also a mouse in the movie. Before the nanny invited her husband to eat at home, Claire ironed her new haircut and apologized to the relaxation therapy coach and the counselor of the mutual aid group. She was no longer so when she was floating in the swimming pool at home. Seek death for the purpose. It seemed that Claire became more active in life, but the director immediately gave the mouse by the pool a close-up (indicating that the shadow in Claire's heart still exists). This is like an ominous omen, and then Claire's self-destructive behavior did not end, but gradually reached a climax: after seeing the driver who caused the accident, he took overdose and was hospitalized, and after being discharged, he tried to commit suicide by lying on the rail. But after that, the mouse did not appear again.
Then, the clue about "Nina": This is undoubtedly the most important clue in the film. At the beginning of the film, Claire expressed his dislike of Nina's suicide, but she dreamed and even visualized Nina's suggestion and instigation to commit suicide again and again. Out of curiosity about Nina, Claire revisits the flyover where Nina committed suicide, inspects Nina's residence, and visits Nina's husband. Claire is disgusted and contemptuous of Nina. From the beginning of the film, Claire described a series of embarrassing experiences after Nina committed suicide. Committed suicide." You can see it all. But the incarnation of nina is undoubtedly a mirror of self-rescue and a channel for negative emotions to pour out for claire. Suicide on the rails is undoubtedly the highest point of the film’s emotions. Under the pressure of Nina’s step by step, Claire finally forgave herself and repeated it twice: "I was a good mother." At this time, Nina disappeared completely, and Claire also disappeared. Eventually return to reality, staggering to leave the track to end the suicidal behavior.
Finally, the clue of "cake": The first time the cake appeared, it was when Claire beat the driver who caused the accident and took an overdose and was hospitalized, Nina Nina, holding the cake, came to see her. In the hallucinations, Nina said that if there is no suffering from chronic diseases, her biggest wish is to make a cake for her son on his birthday. Claire laughed at Nina's hypocrisy, because Nina did not become a good mother as she expressed, but instead abandoned her child by suicide. Nina said that the saint would not jump off the sky bridge, implying that she actually suffered too much and had to do it. Nina asked Claire to make a wish. Although Claire didn't think of any wish, she still did. It can be seen that Claire is also sympathetic to n and gradually understands and forgives Nina. This time Nina's appearance did not make Claire commit suicide, but jumped off the window sill by herself, making Claire panic and losing control again. The second time the cake appeared was after claire’s prone behavior made the spiritual world sublime. Claire ran into a girl who dreamed of becoming an actor. Although the girl had petty theft, claire wanted to help the girl in her own way: by making A cake covered with icing "sponsored" the girl as a reason. Even if the wallet was stolen, he was only planning to freeze the bank card and not pursue it. It was reasonable and generous. The cake appeared for the third time, so that Claire brought the cake made by the girl to Nina's house, put ornaments on the cake, and planned to give the cake to Nina's son. I guess the reason for doing this is that on the one hand, claire really forgave Nina and wanted to help Nina complete the last wish of making cakes for her son, and on the other hand, she wanted to use Nina's son to express her love and miss for her son. Because then claire went to his son's cemetery, and in the end, claire no longer feared to look straight in front of the car, and sat up in the car.
There are many beautiful and touching details in this film. For example, the Mexican nanny carefully kept many boxes of Claire trying to transfer other people's son toys. Claire's husband sat at the door and refused to leave after Claire refused his help. Accompany her to sleep, and so on. As for why the movie is named Cake, I don’t need to worry about seeing it here. Cake is actually love.
Finally, I want to talk about the inner shadow. When the shadow is strong enough, the energy behind the negative emotions is also huge. Alcoholism, drug sedation, and promiscuity cannot dissolve negative emotions. On the contrary, the more depressed, the stronger the negative feelings. The only way to eliminate negative emotions is to accept reality and forgive yourself. Only when you truly forgive yourself can you stop feeling anger and sadness. It's like claire's thorough understanding when he was lying on the rail, and finally forgave himself and Nina. So, even though life is full of variables, there will be fulfillment if there are shortcomings. Wipe away your tears, you still have to move on.
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