Review of Detachment (2011) by Qi Z — 05 Aug 2015

This is a a deep rumination and acute observations of what ills us in life. The setup is an urban school in its daily business of managing order in classrooms. The viewpoints are multiple and largely unharmonized, yet they all offer a vision of pain and suffering. The particulars differ, yet the sense of individual isolation in a chaotic and uncaring universe is unified through the elegiac tone of the movie. The sense of existential despair is responded by the stoic Mr. Barthes who endures and carries on his duty to be a good teacher and a decent human being. Yet his Kantian Imperatives is honed by deep schism in psyche and memory. He reminds me of Detective Cole in True Detective Season 1. Somber and suffering souls bear witness of life honorably, dutifully, yet without false hope.

The one critical scene we see Barthes read among the detritus and chaos around him. The order of the universe lies in his life of mind instead of the sensory life itself. Embodied in moral imperatives, Mr. Barthes is the essential stoic's "ataraxia", a serene calmness against all the odds yet not detached from the love of life itself.

What marks this movie from any other happier-ending ones is the absolute confidence in the present: The danger lies in the joyful tears of Erica rushing toward him. One fears more pain than joy in the universe however the beautiful sunset in the shaded grove looked at that moment of embrace.