The movie Aftersun has been receiving a lot of attention since Paul Mescal’s Oscar nomination, and rightfully so. The performances by Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio in this movie are what sells the beautiful and devastating story. Every scene in this movie serves a purpose, and each shot contains such intricate detail that they could be broken down into separate articles. Though this movie contains countless symbols and important elements, I will attempt to breakdown the three most significant recurring symbols that, in my opinion, make this movie a masterpiece.
Spoiler and trigger warning: Major spoilers in this article, so come back once you have watched the movie! This movie also discusses heavy topics of depression and suicide, so I recommend a box of tissues.
This story follows Callum and Sophie, a father and daughter, as they go on vacation in Turkey over Callum’s 31st birthday. The film is shown from Sophie’s point of view, displayed through a collage of video tapes that she records while on vacation. This is a coming-of-age movie for Sophie as she explores adolescence and her sexuality from the perspective of her 11-year-old self. She admires the teens at the resort as they experience young relationships, and Sophie dreams of being old enough to participate in these exciting new parts of youth.
For Callum, this movie depicts the final moments of his life before committing suicide. Through the recordings and memories recalled by Sophie, we see glimpses of Callum struggling with his mental health, money, romance and fatherhood. Callum tries to shield Sophie from his deteriorating mental state, sharing sweet moments and empty promises of things he wishes he could provide for her. At the end of their trip to Turkey, the film alludes to Callum committing suicide, with this trip being the last time Sophie saw her dad.
In flashbacks shown throughout the film, an older Sophie is seen having just turned 31 herself, going over their last moments together. With Sophie being the same age as Callum when he committed suicide, Sophie looks back on the recordings with her perspective as an adult, trying to identify any indicators that she may have missed of her father’s distress. As she rewinds through the video camera from their vacation, it becomes apparent that the movie itself displays her memory recall in real time.
Water as a Metaphor for Aging
Water is an important symbol that shares a lot about each character’s outlook on life and aging. In this movie, water represents the stages and trajectory of life based on how each character views getting older. For Sophie, aging is something she looks forward to with endless possibilities, gaining more responsibility and privilege. Sophie observes the older teens while underwater as they explore sexuality and maturity, even having her first kiss by the pool.
For Callum, each year he gets older becomes a reminder of all the things he has not accomplished. The relationship between aging and money, or the lack thereof, is one major source of negativity fuelling Callum’s mental health issues. Callum loses an expensive pair of goggles in the ocean and after an argument with Sophie about promising her things he cannot afford, Callum runs into the dark ocean and does not come out. The darkness of the loud aggressive waves visualize the all-consuming pain Callum feels, which he does not believe will change with time. The water represents the endless cycle of everything wrong in Callum’s life, with aging prolonging his feelings of disappointment and reminding him of everything he did not live up to.
Colour Analysis
Colour palates are a device used to portray the contrast of differing experiences between Callum and Sophie. Sophie is seen wearing large amounts of warm tones, specifically yellow, representing her youthful and energetic nature as a child. The warm tones highlight not only her hopefulness for life but also her openness and desire to learn more about Callum. This is contrasted with Callum’s cold blue palate that resembles his stand-offish behaviour and refusal to share real vulnerability with Sophie. The cold versus warm tones can be used as an analogy for their outlooks on life and their differing attitudes of optimism and pessimism. While Sophie views life as something to be worked with, Callum has decided that the future is a dull endless cycle.
This colour contrast is demonstrated most explicitly in the scene where Callum is removing his cast with Sophie prying questions out of him from the other room. While Sophie reads a teen magazine about love and sex, Callum is in the next room cutting himself accidentally and masking the pain. In this scene the two rooms use different lighting to highlight the different experiences and perspectives. Callum’s unwillingness to share vulnerability and pain with Sophie demonstrates both his closed off nature and his commitment to preserving her innocence as long as possible.
The Power of Music
The music in this movie provides explicit context and foreshadowing of the relationship between the characters and their futures. There are two songs that are especially important which play during the depressing turning point of the movie. Losing My Religion by R.E.M is sung by Sophie during a karaoke night when Callum’s refuses to sing with her, and his distress becomes a more recognizable issue. The lyrics in this song express the distance between Callum and Sophie in her attempts to connect with him.
“Trying to keep up with you and I don’t know if I can do it. Oh, no, I’ve said too much. I haven’t said enough… I think I thought I saw you try.”
“Losing My Religion” – R.E.M
Despite her best efforts, Sophie is unable to reach Callum in a way he can connect to. As a child, she is unable to keep up with Callum on the same emotional level and so Sophie struggles to know what she can or cannot say to prompt Callum to open up to her.
Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie is the most significant song in the film because it tells the audience that this trip is the last time Callum and Sophie are seeing each other, with their last dance in Turkey also being their last dance together. This song represents Callum’s perspective with lyrics like “it’s the terror of knowing what this world is about”, demonstrating his struggle with depression and difficulty deriving hopefulness in life. In the dance scene before Sophie and Callum’s final goodbye at the airport, the song repeats the lyrics “this is our last dance”, emphasizing this as their last moments together. It is this scene of their ‘last dance’ that we see flashbacks of that foreshadow throughout the entire movie, showing glimpses of how Sophie remembers him from their trip and how she recognizes Callum was in his final moments.
This movie is objectively a perfect 10/10 in terms of acting, storyline, and filmmaking perspective, with the film being devastating in such a real-life way. The story and performances stuck with me for weeks after my first watch, prompting many re-watches to admire the work. This film is amazing on the first watch, but it is a MASTERPIECE on the second and third (if you can get through without too many tears). On a second watch the audience becomes a piece of the story, taking Sophies point of view as we go over the movie through a more critical eye knowing what’s to come. During the re-watch you are able to catch more signs of distress from Callum, but we never quite get the answers we desire about him, and neither does Sophie. There is so much more that could be said about this movie, but to put it simply: it is a beautiful masterpiece. This film is incredible, and I cannot recommend it enough.