The Tall Man (2012)
The movie "The Tall Man" begins with an introduction to a small, resource-less town devoid of money called Cold Rock, in which kids have vanished under mysterious circumstances. Blame is cast upon an urban legend by the name of "The Tall Man," a shadowy figure who is said to kidnap the kids amid widespread fear and despair that has engulfed the town.
Julia Denning is a widow, a nurse living in Cold Rock with her son David. She is a respected woman in town for being caring and loving, but things get totally reversed when her son disappears; she becomes the focus of the town's hysteria. Julia desperately runs after what she perceives to be The Tall Man and subsequently finds herself in the middle of an extremely intense chase through the woods. Eventually, she catches up with a man in a hood, but during the struggle, he overpowers her and drives off with David.
The plot had an astonishing twist: the woman, Julia, was not a bereaved mother at all; it has been found that she had relations with the abduction of children in town. She was working for an organization that took away children from abusive or neglecting parents and gave new lives to them amongst those families that could take better care and who belonged to well-off families. As the story unfolded, it would become clear to the viewer that "The Tall Man" was no supernatural monster but a metaphor for abductions contrived by Julia and the organization. Because of poverty and hopelessness, many parents in this town are unable to care for their children, so this is their way of "saving" the children from a life of misery.
The height of the movie comes when Lieutenant Dodd, who is an investigator putting his effort into the kids' vanishing, stands in front of Julia. At that moment, Julia, while still distressed, admits the truth but at the same time justifies her misdeed by exclaiming that she sends kids to heaven and gives them a better life if they go onto her so-called paradise. To the despair of Dodd, the man of the law cannot hale her to jail for the simple reason that it is hard for him to acquire the evidence to prove that "The Tall Man" exists.
In the final act, Julia gets captured by the townspeople and taken to the local diner for beating and torturing in order to get answers about the children's whereabouts. However, Julia keeps silent, aware that this will expose the children she saved to danger. Finally, the requirement of lack of evidence is forced, and the town has to release her; with this, Julia leaves Cold Rock.
The movie closes with a very sad but sweet ending when Julia's kids are shown to be happy with new sets of families, far away from the desolation and squalor of Cold Rock.Even David, her son, was seen to stay with a new family, oblivious of the past. Julia, an aged lady who lost everything in her life, could only watch from afar, knowing that she had given up on happiness for the better futures of the kids. And in the final scene, Julia is shown to be in the middle of nowhere but still with her work; now determined to save as many children from living a life of suffering, even if that means being called a monster by the ones who do not find good in what she does. The movie ends with Julia's actions still ambiguously haunting as to whether she did the right thing or simply turned into the very evil she was trying to save the kids from.
The Tall Man (2012) Trailer
Post a Comment