Aloft (2014)

A struggling mother encounters the son she abandoned 20 years earlier.

Director:

Claudia Llosa

Writer:

Claudia Llosa

Stars:

Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy, Mélanie Laurent

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jennifer Connelly	...	Nana Kunning
Cillian Murphy	...	Ivan
Mélanie Laurent	...	Jannia Ressmore
William Shimell	...	Newman
Peter McRobbie	...	Ike
Andy Murray	...	Lance
Ian Tracey	...	Hans
Oona Chaplin	...	Alice
Winta McGrath	...	Gully
Zen McGrath	...	Young Ivan
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Judy Cook	...	Airplane Receptionist
Nancy Drake	...	Old Woman
Allan Wallace Dunkeld	...	Boy at Hotel
Cam Gates	...	Volunteer
Erika Marxx	...	Woman 3

Storyline

As we follow a mother (Jennifer Connelly) and her son (Cillian Murphy), we delve into a past marred by an accident that tears them apart. She will become a renowned artist and healer, and he will grow into his own as a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence. In the present, a young journalist (Mélanie Laurent) will bring about an encounter between the two that puts the very meaning of life and art into question, so that we may contemplate the possibility of living life to its fullest, despite the uncertainties littering our paths.

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Plot Keywords:

troubled marriage | arctic | falcon | dysfunctional family | canada | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexuality

Details

Country:

Spain Canada France

Language:

English French

Release Date:

23 January 2015 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Aloft

Filming Locations:

Manitoba, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,116, 24 May 2015

Gross USA:

$53,086

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$270,971

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wanda Visión S.A., Arcadia Motion Pictures, Buffalo Gal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min 97 min (dvd)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scene of Jenia and Ivan walking across the frozen lake at night were filmed on an actual frozen lake and at night. Director Claudia Llosa had great difficulty to get the go ahead for the night time shoot on the lake because it was deemed too dangerous.

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Quotes

Nana Kunning: You know, the problem is the moment I begin to explain an act, I start claiming it with language. We want to take this possessive stance with everything, right? But it only weakens us, whereas our well-being demands an acceptance of uncertainty.

User Reviews

Aloft is a bit aloof

The acting is fine, Jennifer Connelly is always good as is Cillian Murphy and the kid-actors were fine as well.

Visually it's also a nice looking movie, with limited colours that creates and cold and melancholic feeling which suits the movie just fine, because it is rather melancholic.

The movie though is just good enough not to be bad, but far from great.

Needless to say Jennifer Connelly's character is very spiritual and believes in healing, I believe her character is supposed to be Native American although I am not quite sure about this but a lot of her spiritual beliefs stem from them if nothing else.

So it helps if you have some sort of interest in that or at least an open mind because it's not always very up front and direct in it's approach to tell the story with plenty of metaphors and subtlety more so than direct big orchestrated dramatic scenes.

The blu-ray version (at least the one I watched could possibly differ in some countries) is 97 minutes, and not 112 minutes like it says on IMDb.

From what I've heard the version shown on festivals was indeed 112 minutes but it wasn't received that well so they cut it down to 97 minutes for the blu-ray/DVD market.

And although that caught me off guard initially, I'm not quite sure if it would be able to sustain my interest for 112 minutes so this could be one of those times where the cut down version is actually better, although I of course can't be sure about this.