Paris, Texas

I’m… actually a bit speechless with this one. After completing it, it’s hard to put my feelings into words, but I will try. This movie starts with two writing clichés that I absolutely abhor: amnesia and mute characters. I was expecting those to be major plot points and to play out like most of the other media that uses these tropes. What happened next was a slow realization that the story really was not going to rely on them at all. I started to understand that this would be something of a character study, but more reserved, if that makes sense. Like the character at the start of the movie, I wandered and wondered and just enjoyed the scenery, letting the movie pass me by. But the thing with life is that stopping and taking in the little details is important, and I felt I didn’t take this film seriously at first. The slow march from ‘abhor’ to ‘adore’ was the first half, and then it quickened in one instant, and that’s when I knew I loved this movie.” When Nastassja Kinski appears in the film, I was captivated by her. I don’t think I have been captivated the same way since I watched Christina Ricci in Buffalo ’66. Nastassja Kinski has this calm, ethereal sadness that glued me to the screen. It was then that I really started to wonder what would come next. I arrived at my destination, and all I could do was watch the scenes unfold before me. I can’t spoil the last half of this movie, but all of it resonated with me. The family dynamic and the way the dialogues and monologues coalesce made me think deeply about my own life, what it means to be human, how people navigate through life, and how they try to make things work. Even now, with my stream of consciousness, I’m unsure how to fully describe what I felt at the end of this film. It’s bittersweet, I guess, but I feel stressed, happy, and sad. It’s something very unique. I had no idea I would love this movie so much by the end, and I will need to watch this again. I wholeheartedly recommend this movie, despite its long runtime.