I didn’t have any expectations watching Motif and Ad Astra.
Probably because I didn’t want to feel somewhat betrayed based on past experiences with over-hyped films, local and foreign alike.
To my surprise, both films’ topics resonated with me; male ego, polygamy, work obsession, escapism, loss and abandonment.
Both films reminded me of personal trying moments and asked the possibilities of how the situations could’ve been handled better.
The absence of a father figure or a role model during one’s formative years will leave them with confusion, anger, frustrations, and numbness.
Some fill the void with denial, some with substance abuse.
But after 25 odd years, I’ve accepted that I couldn’t change the past and now trying not to repeat the same mistakes and causing the same pains.
Hussein’s (Rosyam Nor) cry for help when he lost everyone and everything was his last plea for redemption, after all the sufferings he had caused them.
Roy’s (Brad Pitt) went off-script to record a voice message for his father in Neptune was him forgiving the father for abandoning him and his mother.
Motif’s overarching theme and marketing tagline of “All men are the same” and a line from Ad Astra “In the end, the son suffers the sins of his father” speaks volume.
Of course, until they are forgiven and forgotten.
