Other than Upstream Color being suggested to me on Netflix, and me liking the quick synopsis, I had no clue what the movie was about. I was not expecting the movie that I saw. With it's disjointed narration, and being void of any sort of a plot, Upstream Color offers a ton of discussion. Bollocks did a wonderful job up above in capturing the movie as a whole.
Watching the film I felt as if I was in a fog and not really understanding what was going on. I couldn't get comfortable watching it. I was lost. About three fourths of the way through I thought, "Ummm, this is how the characters feel!" As the characters were lost in their ways, and slowly piecing their lives together, I found myself becoming more aware of the movie. Not saying I "got it," this really isn't a movie you can 'get.' Carruth did a wonderful job of slowly piecing the film together as the movie progressed. Upstream Color started all over the place and by the end it's much more accessible. As a viewer, this mimics the feelings the characters were having.
Bollocks touched on the use of color in the film. It plays a vita role in conveying emotion to the viewer without it really being overt. The biggest use of color seems to be a whitewash over everything. When the characters are in their fog, there's a large presence of white and low contrast on the screen. As the characters progress in finding their beginning, or end, the contrast seems to begin to slowly come back. Their foggy mind is slowly being lifted and they're able to get their bearings back in their lives.
Bollocks, interesting about the comparison to The Tree of Life. I thought the same thing as I was watching. It was very familiar to me and I got the 'observing characters' feeling I had in The Tree of Life. With that, the premise of Upstream Color, the cycle of nature, is not far off from The Tree of Life. Both films are about beginnings, middles, ends, and beginnings again. There's s shared cyclical nature of both films.
I can't wait to get more dialogue from others about Upstream Color. It's a great discussion film and I'm glad I happened to select it as our first Movie of the Month club selection.