Bokeh 2017

I enjoyed this movie. It's subtle. I found it to be beautiful and thought provoking. How does one deal with waking up to find that they and their lover are the only two people left in the world? There comes a time in many young people’s lives when they begin to question the meaning of life and their place in the world as they attempt to reconcile their religious upbringing with the reality of the world. This can be a very stressful time both emotionally and psychologically resulting in a possible existential crisis. The young man, Riley, has apparently previously dealt with such matters as he takes a somewhat surprisingly Zen-like approach to their situation thus avoiding such crisis or perhaps he is just not given to such thoughts. After all, why spend time contemplating things for which there are no answers? Unfortunately for the young woman, Jenai, finding themselves in the most bizarre and inexplicable situation imaginable seems to bring her to question, quite possibly for the first time, God’s will, even the very existence of God, and the validity of everything she’s been taught. We watch her struggle with a deep existential crisis for which their present situation obviously only exacerbates. Riley loves the stark beauty of Iceland and seems genuinely content to live out his days there. Jenai, on the other hand, appears to feel trapped as they are now essentially stranded in a strange land far from home (they appear to be American). She misses her home, her family, and her book that she describes as more of a log book than a journal. Riley makes constant attempts to help Jenai through her crisis. He attempts to show her the beauty of their new world and how they can have a wonderful life there together. "We have the world at our feet." They stop at a random cabin on a lake in the woods for a relaxing retreat outside the city. There they come across an old man who has gone without food and water for too long. He had gone there to die. They, of course, give him food and water and share his cabin with him that evening. Jenai discusses the philosophical issues of their situation with him by the fire in the hearth. The old man passes away in his sleep and is found dead in the morning. Surely if there is one then there could be others. They make a renewed search driven by Jenai but find no one else. Electricity and Internet service is still available. Jenai holds on to hope that there is someone back at home. She keeps her computer on and monitors it daily for any messages or other signs of humanity out there. As Riley makes continued attempts to help Jenai come to accept their situation, she seems to improve, but then when a message notification sounds on her computer, it apparently becomes 'the straw that broke the camel’s back'. In this movie, as in life, there are no answers. Perhaps it is best to accept things as they come rather than try to reason in vain as to why.