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Swan Song (2021)
In the near future, Cameron Turner is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Presented with an experimental solution to shield his wife and son from grief, he grapples with altering their fate in this thought-provoking exploration of love, loss, and sacrifice.
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teri elam
December 28, 2021
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Benjamin Cleary’s ‘Swan Song’: Poetry for the Heart, Soul, and Consciousness: A Review
**Some spoilers included**
It is a poem, lament, and dirge—this labyrinthine journey—our only clues: facial expressions, whispers, and random, but soothing retrospectives. We're riding on the train with Cameron Turner (Mahershala Ali), and quickly understand its destination. Cameron, wearing expensive tortoiseshell frames, a nose stud, and a skull cap, sketches a haunting image of a man falling gracefully but helplessly from the sky near a bridge. He pauses, drawing to converse with an AI-powered crew member--a slick-looking motorized cart that guesses his order: oat milk latte, no sugar. Cameron also requests an "Echo Bar" (a chocolate bar in a lavender wrapper), which becomes the bridge to his future. An effervescent Poppy (Naomie Harris), whose face lights up the screen, sits across from him, dialoguing, between French and English, with someone; fervently protecting her brother’s sensitivity. We learn much about them both in this scene without barely a word uttered. And considering the definition of echo, which includes “something similar to something that happened or existed before,” Cleary offers many clues in this opening stanza.
Swan Song is a speculative tale that creates a world where literal duplicity is possible. Cleary has Cameron weigh the ultimate sacrifice: not saying goodbye to our loved ones to spare their grief. Is regeneration morally right? Is he willing to die alone, knowing they are none the wiser? These questions and the narrative surrounding them almost disguise the sci-fi nature of the film. Driverless cars, AI, and organ replication are believable and, in some form, possible now. So, it is almost conceivable that a human being could twin itself one day. Cleary doesn't ask us to contend with monsters under the bed or a disappearing hero (though I loved his idea of a 3D emoticon that speaks in our voice and then goes poof!). He makes us think deeply about how much and how selflessly we can love in all its versions: from romantic to familial, to self-love to eternal.
Cameron is given opportunities to weigh this question with others in on his secret, like Dr. Jo Scott (Glenn Close), the mastermind behind the cloning. Close’s genius creates Scott, a not quite mad scientist, in only a handful of scenes. She balances anxiety for her experiment's success and a sympathetic ear for the emotions that Cameron and Jack (Ali), his clone, experience in their subdued battle of wills. Another patient, Kate (Awkwafina), is a mentor for Cameron to help him consider moving beyond his guilt of lying to protect his loved ones. Though acerbic, Kate’s wit is a breathing space needed between the heaviness. It gives room, even for Cameron, to show a side of himself rarely seen—his ability to be silly.
Swan Song is gentle; Cameron's quietude: his voice, tone, the whir of the driverless car that drops him off, how he checks on his sleeping son, Cory (Dax Rey), then Poppy. We are lulled by the ease between them, pulled into the possibilities of a future. But the muted colors, bareness, the thick and lonely forest clue us in—this present moment with Cameron has a limited tenure. We are given insight into why his decision was within the realm of integrity. In one scene, Poppy states if regeneration brought her mother back, then “screw the ethics,” that if she couldn't tell, she’d “take that.” In a later memory, she’s playing “Sometimes It Snows in April,” the elegiac song Prince originally recorded 31 years (to the day) before his death. Poppy, a music teacher for children with learning difficulties, emerging from a year of grief after the loss of her twin brother, Andre (Nyasha Hatendi), ends the song: “Sometimes I wish that life was never-ending / But all good things, they say, never last / And love, it isn't [hard] until it's past.
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Movie Information
In the near future, Cameron Turner is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Presented with an experimental solution to shield his wife and son from grief, he grapples with altering their fate in this thought-provoking exploration of love, loss, and sacrifice.
Rating:
Genre:Drama, Science Fiction
Directed By:Benjamin Cleary
Written By:Benjamin Cleary
In Theaters:12/17/2021
Box Office:
Runtime:112 minutes
Studio:Anonymous Content, Know Wonder, Apple Studios
Cast
Benjamin Cleary
Director
Benjamin Cleary
Director
Mahershala Ali
Cameron Turner
Naomie Harris
Poppy Turner
Awkwafina
Kate
Glenn Close
Dr. Eve Scott
Adam Beach
Dalton
Lee Shorten
Rafa
Dax Rey
Hugo
Nyasha Hatendi
Andre
JayR Tinaco
Alex
Luke Camilleri
Rob
Jessica Hayles
Julie
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