Till Human Voices Wake Us
Till Human Voices Wake Us, is a romantic and tragic, haunting and spiritual love story. There is such strong feelings of young love at its most delicate form and the innocence that it feeds from is so free and beautiful, it is precious and magical.
Till Human Voices Wake Us is mesmerizing and it has style all on its own. It takes you deep inside a tunnel where love is young and full of life, but suddenly all that light disappears and leaves you feeling alone and barren.
The story is told through flashbacks and present time. When the story nears the end, the title of the movie reveals itself in a most prolific and sentimental way.
Dr. Sam Franks (Guy Pearce) is returning home to Australian to bury the remains of his father. What would seem to be a difficult time in dealing with such an important and pivotal member of the family, for Sam, it is nevertheless, a time when tears will not be shed. Sam and his father, Dr. David (Peter Curtin), never had the emotional relationship that a father and son should have. Boarding the train that will take he and his father's coffin to the burial site, Sam grows weary and falls asleep. Upon awakening, he is surprised to see a beautiful dark-haired woman sitting across from him. Her name is Ruby (Helena Bonham Carter) and, although not much is said between the two, it is what Ruby says in one beguiling sentence that sends chills up the spine and begins to open the story for the viewer.
Sam must leave for a moment and, when he returns to his seat, Ruby is gone.
On a rainy night while driving, Sam sees Ruby again, but this time she's standing on a bridge overlooking the water. A train speeds by and Ruby lunges into the water. Sam saves her and, in the morning, discovers that she has amnesia, but there is something about Ruby that is familiar and haunting at the same time, which brings back memories of Sam's first love, a young girl whose disabilities never got in the way of their friendship or their young romance they started to share before a tragic night took it all away.
Is Ruby, Sam's sweetheart or a figment of Sam's most tortured childhood memory? Will Ruby be able to help Sam with his past or will he just go further into a sense of loss and hurt?
Helena Bonham Carter is classy and beautifully detailed in her expressions and performances as she makes astonishingly powerful and captivating characters. Guy Pearce gives a strong and affectingly sad and moving performance. He is quite good and his character pulls the viewer into experiencing, with him, his unforgetably greatest loss.
Also, what makes this movie so breathtaking and emotional, is the uplifting performances of Brooke Harmon and Lindley Joyner, who play "Silvy" and "Sam," as the young dreamers and sweethearts. To me, they bring so much soul to the movie's background and help to bring, into focus, the later story years that not only are bittersweet, serene and magical.
This is truly an interesting and thought-provoking movie. Quite striking and, with polished performances, this a wisely chosen movie.