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Ain’t no mountain high enough?

Louder than Bombs (2015)
Director: Joachim Trier

It seems that everyone is moving around their own burden of baggage. Just because they do not carry their heart on their sleeves and they appear composed, do not for once think that they had it all sorted out. In the same vein, like how Jesus is said to have said, "He who had not sinned shall cast the first stone!" no one is immune from failure or wrongdoing. Unfortunately, life is not two-dimensional but multilayered with sparks of goodness, evil, hopelessness, and injustices. It is within our duty to separate the wheat from the chaff. 

This story is a story of a widowed father with two sons. The mother, a high-flying photojournalist, had died three years previously. An exhibition is planned to fete her work, and a newspaper is planning an intimate exposé of her life and times. The article will not be pretty as many unanswered questions are surrounding her nasty car accident. The question of suicide is thrown in. 

The elder of the two sons is an academic whose wife had just delivered a baby. A chance meeting with his ex-girlfriend took him astray, reminiscing the alternative life he would have had if he had not married his current wife. He goes back to his father's house for soul searching. 

The young son, a 15-year-old, is apparently embroiled in his own growing pains without his mother, his go-to whenever she used to return from her long overseas trip. The imminent newspaper run down of his mother's life and times may suggest his mother's accident was a suicide. His father does not want his son to learn about his mother's double life in this manner. Hence, he tries desperately to pre-warn him. Their relationship is hardly cordial. 

The relationship takes a turn for the worse when he discovers that his class teacher is his father's new lover. 

The rest of the story is about how the three characters reconcile their differences and let sanity prevail. 

Sometimes we feel that our problems are so enormous, cataclysmic, even louder than bombs. The truth is that what we perceive as huge can sometimes be a fraction of what others may endure. No problem is insolvable. Always look at the sunny side of life.
 

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