Film - The Roads Not Taken

Leo a former writer is now removed from society, spending days in bed either hallucinating, dreaming or thinking of another life - I don’t which. His daughter Molly is doing her best to keep him going and it is not at all clear to me whether he has some form of dementia or if he’s grieving or something else.

We see flashbacks to his beloved first wife back in Mexico persuading him to go to a festival [no spoilers] he thinks is pointless. And we see flashbacks to him in Greece chatting to two young women about a potential storyline - one of them reminds of his daughter.

I’m surprised by her affection towards him as he clearly missed a chunk of her growing up but other than his carer, she appears to be his only fan, but we only see him for one day. On this day she had to take him to the dentist and the opticians and then get to work. I couldn't fathom why she decided to take on all of these enormous challenges in one day. I felt her pressure. 

As you would expect, there are so many sad moments, however, the one where she loses a project she had spent months working on as she wasn’t there to attend a meeting (it went to a bloke) has stayed with me. We see her hit rock bottom trying to hold everything together and yet hide her tears from her father who is lost in his mind.

The film draws you right in as if we’re standing helplessly beside the father and daughter. Probably the most intense 85 minutes in a cinema in this, the most intensive of years.

7½/10