Exotica focuses on the substitutes used by its central characters. Francis substitutes Christina for his daughter and Tracey for Christina (when she was his daughter's babysitter). Eric substitutes his club DJ job for the career he wanted in radio, he substitutes his voyeurism in the club for his inability to have a lasting relationship. Zoe substitutes for her dead mother and continues to run the club, instead of a husband she has Eric contractually substitute so that she can have a baby. Thomas substitutes his opera liaisons for a real relationship and substitutes an incubator for the eggs he has taken from a nest. Christina substitutes a protective Francis for her uncaring and probably abusive father. Voyeurism substitutes for interaction.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Substitutions
I had thought about the idea of some characters using others as substitutions, and then I ran across this observation in an IMDB review. It's an interesting theme for the film.
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1 comment:
That is a good way to look at it, and it ties in with kc’s “miscarriage of love”. Everybody’s natural relationships have failed or been destroyed, and now they are trying to create proxies. But the substitutions are not up to the task of providing real care. Perhaps my “quid pro quo” fits in here too. There is a broad sense of prostitution here: trying to buy intimacy that cannot ever be real.
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