LINOLEUM
US, 2022, 101 minutes, Colour.
Jim Gaffigan, Rhea Seehorn, Katelyn Nacon, Gabriel Rush, Amy Hargraves, Michael Ian Black, Tony Shalhoub, Roger Hendricks Simon, Elizabeth Henry.
Directed by Colin West.
A small film with what one might call an unprepossessing title. Which may leave audiences wondering whether they should see this film or not. If they decide to watch it, they will find it something of a brainteaser.
We are in the American midwest, Cameron (American stand-up comedian, author, recording artist and actor, Jim Gaffigan) 50ish, his riding his bike when, suddenly, a bright red sports car all from the clear blue sky, crashing into the road behind him. We should keep that in mind throughout the film even as the narrative becomes, at times, very domestic-oriented in the small town.
Cameron has had dreams of being an astronaut, loves science and space technology, and, with his wife from whom he is now alienated, she planning divorce, has worked in the past, especially on a very local, small-budget television science education program for a children’s audience. They have a teenage daughter and a small son who never speaks.
Then some space junk falls from the sky in Cameron’s backyard. He decides to work on it, try to get its central apparatus working – and visiting the hospital where his father, suffering from dementia, still remembers technical details and Cameron installs him at home. The doctor at the home, Tony Shalhoub, has a lot of comments about dementia, it being all in the mind, the brain solidifying with an equivalent of plaque and not being able to break free. However, Cameron is not deterred, and makes friends with the young student, Marc (Gabriel Rush), who has a brutal father, scientist and TV broadcaster also, and also played by Gaffigan. Marc is bullied at school and teams up with Cameron’s daughter – and whole lot of scenes of teenager and high school life, prissy students, Halloween parties…
In the meantime, Cameron’s wife, Erin (Rhea Seehorn has been offered a new job, still has great affection for Cameron, clashes with her daughter…
For those who have been puzzling about aspects of the plot, how similar Marc’s father is to Cameron, a mysterious elderly woman seen standing vigil outside the house, they will be wondering about what is really happening, how really it is or not, or, as the doctor has suggested, so much happening in the mind. Perhaps one way of pondering the screenplay is to remember the 80s film and its evocative title, Back to the Future.
It does all come together at the end, quite strikingly in the last 15 minutes or so, still something of a tangle for those who are puzzling. So, a small film but one which keeps making demands on us as we watch – and unthreading the strands of the plot after we have seen it. As regards the title, Jim Gaffigan was asked and here is his, somewhat enigmatic, answer: “The linoleum is the floor that was present, and it’s kind of this dull flooring that you see in many different environments: in the basement, in the kitchen, in the doctor’s office”. In other words, the linoleum is the common thread.
- The title? Meaning? Reference? Enigmatic?
- The Midwestern town, homes, streets, school, home for the aged, science Museum, garage…? Musical score?
- Cameron and his story? Jim Gaffigan and his screen presence? His alter ego? Appearance, manner, contrast? Age, around 50, married to Erin, his daughter Nora, his small son? Bicycle, the street, the fall of the red car, posting his applications to NASA, the refusal? His reappraisal of his life? Erin, filing for divorce?
- Their role on the television science program, small-budget, studio and props, the love for science, demonstration? And their watching the program throughout the film?
- The space junk crash in the backyard? Moving out of the house? Cameron and his return, curiosity, wanting to do something with the junk, visiting his father, the aged care home, memory, the discussions with the doctor, taking his father home, setting him up in the garage? His continued work? Erin’s reaction?
- Marc, his brutal father, discipline, putting him down? Demands? Silent, the scenes at school, mocked? Nora, her approach, gay, conversations, keeping company, the growing friendship, at school, outside school? Marc, interest in the space junk, talking with Cameron? Bonding with Cameron, a benign father figure?
- Erin, conversations with her friend, advice, the interview for the new job, the prospects, her work at the Museum, having to move, the discussions with Cameron, in the bedroom, sharing? Her decision? Not to go? Her visit to the garage? The interactions with Nora, Nora highly critical? The apologies?
- Work in the garage, diligent, inventive, Cameron and his father, the experiment, some success, the blowout? Symbolic for Cameron of his life and achievements?
- The doctor, the comments about life being simple or not? Saying that was all in the mind? His image of the brain, covered with plaque, clogging?
- The mysterious woman, Cameron seeing her, day and night?
- The interaction between Cameron and his alter ego?
- The finale of the film, twilight zone themes, Back to the Future? The events in Cameron’s mind, memories, his growing dementia, memories of Erin, her supporting him up till the end, the generations, Marc, Cameron, his father, images of himself? Erin and the daughter? The news that they never had a child, the boy they wished they had?
- The finale, retrospective on life, its meaning, achievements, lack of achievement? Cameron in the space helmet? His death?
