I think if you look at the film as being similar to a long, deep episode of The Twilight Zone, you'll get it.
Jonah is a graveyard (sad pun) shift concierge in a crappy, dead-end hotel in a crappy, dead-end town. He and his wife Marty and toddler daughter Roxy (adorable Sukha Belle Potter) live with Marty's parents in order to save money for a better life. Marty's mother is a shrill harpy and her father is silent. There is a subtle hint at one point that perhaps Roxy is not Jonah's biological daughter, which armchair geneticists will notice right away when they see her chocolate brown eyes yet her parents both have blue.
Jonah tries to stay awake while working his night shifts and watching his daughter during the day, and it's never clear when he sleeps. How much of what happens to him is real, and how much is a sleep deprivation-fueled hallucination? There are more easy-to-miss hints in the soundtrack of the movie; listen for static noises that indicate something's not quite right in Jonah's world.
Religious allusions are rampant. Obvious are the name Jonah and being "in the belly of the whale," and also the frogs that appear to rain from the sky. Look, too, for a shot where a heavily bearded Buster lies in a bathtub, arms spread wide, looking for all the world like a picture of The Crucifixion. Finally, at the end there is a cave scene that recalls the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning -- is he there or is he not? What can we believe?
Jonah is a graveyard (sad pun) shift concierge in a crappy, dead-end hotel in a crappy, dead-end town. He and his wife Marty and toddler daughter Roxy (adorable Sukha Belle Potter) live with Marty's parents in order to save money for a better life. Marty's mother is a shrill harpy and her father is silent. There is a subtle hint at one point that perhaps Roxy is not Jonah's biological daughter, which armchair geneticists will notice right away when they see her chocolate brown eyes yet her parents both have blue.
Jonah tries to stay awake while working his night shifts and watching his daughter during the day, and it's never clear when he sleeps. How much of what happens to him is real, and how much is a sleep deprivation-fueled hallucination? There are more easy-to-miss hints in the soundtrack of the movie; listen for static noises that indicate something's not quite right in Jonah's world.
Religious allusions are rampant. Obvious are the name Jonah and being "in the belly of the whale," and also the frogs that appear to rain from the sky. Look, too, for a shot where a heavily bearded Buster lies in a bathtub, arms spread wide, looking for all the world like a picture of The Crucifixion. Finally, at the end there is a cave scene that recalls the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning -- is he there or is he not? What can we believe?