I was delighted to see Raven Goodwin, who was so great in "Lovely and Amazing." Cleo was an interesting character to me because we never really know who she is -- other than that she likes trains -- or who her parents are or where she comes from. Any thoughts on Cleo's role in the film?
4 comments:
Loved her. She's like a soulful, ageless little Buddha whose demeanor has understandably appealed to more than one director.
Good point about her lack of identity. She just sort of shows up with no explanation and no need to explain.
I think she's a nice way of bringing out some of Fin's finer qualities. His curmudgeonly ways soften a bit around her. The shared interest in trains is childlike — meaning not juvenile, but innocent, sincere and passionate.
Cleo gives us an intereting perspective because she's not sure what to think of Fin, like she asks him what grade he is in. But once she sort of understands his condition, she doesn't think twice about it. He's just another friend to her, and she admires his expertise on trains. Fin's other two friends are sort of like Cleo — childlike in their relationship to him and to life, meaning accepting, matter-of-fact. Olivia wants to play with Cleo on the train. She's never lost her childlike fascination with things, and neither obviously has Joe, who, you can tell, will have a kid's fascination for life and all things in it until his dying day. Every year will be a wonder year.
Cleo is also a conduit for Fin becoming more accepting of himself. She asks Fin to speak at her school, and he refuses, but by the end of the film, he is willing to do it, and it has some awfulness, just as he expected, but it's also very rewarding — and it's a turning point for him in confronting his fears. It's cool when he's talking about trains and the little girl says, "What about blimps?" And he says blimps are cool. It harkens back to when the three of them were smoking pot and watching the train movie and he said, with the same out-of-the-blueness, "Horses are cool."
Nice comment, kc. She does bring out different qualities in Fin that the audience isn't sure he has early on. He seems more accepting of curiosity from Cleo than he does the other people in town who want to get to know him.
I really loved that first scene with her, where she appears out of nowhere and just starts following Fin down the tracks. And when he slowly turns around and says hi, she darts into the trees. It's the beginning of a playful, sweet relationship. I loved the way they interacted and the effect she seemed to have on him.
You all thought she had a strong effect on him, but I didn't see it. He seemed awkward and uncomfortable around her, and in the first couple of scenes with her, I thought he was very cold as well. He did warm up to her a little, but I thought that was due to the changes Joe and Olivia had caused in him.
What did I miss?
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