Review of The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) by Yury M — 28 May 2008

Sabina: Are you afraid of women, Doctor?

Tomas: Of course.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a peculiar film. I don't think I would recommend it to many people but there is something about this movie that keeps me going back to it in my mind. The movie is about a doctor-womanizer in the 60s Czechoslovakia. It is not a new concept to set deeply personal stories against famous and usually painful and embarrassing public events. It appeals to all of us, since we live in some sort of daze of daily existence, unsuspecting of the larger world around us. Sure we like to talk about world events and developments within our countries, but most of the time we feel untouchable. At least I do, why am I speaking for everyone? And the characters of this movie do as well. They work, they party, they make love, they reluctantly criticize the regime, but not with indignation, just as social obligation. Then the Prague Spring comes and their lives are shaken and reformed, but their biggest demons remain their own, not public.

The main character, the doctor who is portrayed by the excellent Daniel Day Lewis, has an endless appetite for life, but refuses to commit and therefore misses out on one of the main pleasures in life. The movie deals with this and many other themes of relationships and never forgets to extrapolate them onto the issues of the society. The book, on which this movie was based, for several years had been considered unfilmable. And honestly, I don't think that it makes for a great film. The acting is decent, even though I hated the accents, the views of France (substituting for Prague) provide a nice atmosphere, the real documentary footage of the Prague Spring events organically fits the rest of the movie, but the whole story somehow feels artificial to me.

If you enjoyed Closer, you will enjoy this movie as well, but you will miss the eloquence of Closer's characters.