This film tells a story, lets you feel what it would really be like to live through these events. There's no detectable "message" nor "moral of the story". BUT even though the film itself doesn't lean that way, I couldn't help mulling over some larger social issues (and a few scenes in the film, although unremarked, contributed).
The cost of preserving a human life was wrecked personal finances, losing ownership of an apartment, a good marriage, a couple careers, and several of what should have been the best years of a couple lives. (The film doesn't dwell on these things, but it does report them. A credit card gets cut up. They create a nice meal in their imaginations. An offhand remark reports the loss of the apartment. And so forth.) Was it worth it? And why was the burden laid almost exclusively on one small nuclear family rather than on a larger community?
The state apparently paid for all the medical care (better than in the U.S.). But no state help was available for avoiding personal bankruptcy or for saving apartment ownership. Was that the best deployment of resources?
(Also, unconnected to the child's sickness, the film mentions that both parents had considerable trouble finding work. Some career aspirations on both sides were dashed. And there's even a suggestion the situation was so bad that Juliette took work in a different town several hours away.)
The cost of preserving a human life was wrecked personal finances, losing ownership of an apartment, a good marriage, a couple careers, and several of what should have been the best years of a couple lives. (The film doesn't dwell on these things, but it does report them. A credit card gets cut up. They create a nice meal in their imaginations. An offhand remark reports the loss of the apartment. And so forth.) Was it worth it? And why was the burden laid almost exclusively on one small nuclear family rather than on a larger community?
The state apparently paid for all the medical care (better than in the U.S.). But no state help was available for avoiding personal bankruptcy or for saving apartment ownership. Was that the best deployment of resources?
(Also, unconnected to the child's sickness, the film mentions that both parents had considerable trouble finding work. Some career aspirations on both sides were dashed. And there's even a suggestion the situation was so bad that Juliette took work in a different town several hours away.)