Wine the Flick?! — Annihilation

Hello Christy,

I think the central reason many struggle to put this movie together is they are trying to understand it from the perspective that it is a sci-fi movie; I believe it is a completely metaphorical movie.

I think the movie depicts what it is like to battle loss (the loss of a relationship, a loved one, and one’s life, for instance) and how most do not come out “alive” after facing the intolerable pain involved in this process. “The Shimmer” is something that starts our far enough away, but, steadily inches it’s way closer to you, and, inevitably, reaches you, just as the inescapable and haunting emotions that follow you after you are faced with loss. Consider that the first time we see the title for, “The Shimmer,” it is immediately followed by Lena’s (Natalie Portman) recollection of her cheating on her husband. We are in “the shimmer” now because Lena’s decision to do this led her to feel as though there is this impending doom crawling towards her and she has to face it for her life and marriage to potentially move forward.

Additionally, we are told and reminded on several occasions that this movie is representative of pain and how people approach it. For instance, the one woman cut her arm and then, subsequently, we watch as plant life is birthed from this part of her body. From her pain, we see growth. Additionally, this character tells us that the psychologist wants to run headfirst into it, Lena wants to fight it, while she wants to do something different. We watch as she seemingly accepts that the loss/pain take her over, essentially leading her to believe that she is, and will always be, completely incapacitated by that pain/loss. It is highly suggested that this character becomes one of those small tree-type structures, representative of the resignation and stagnation she, and many who go through profound pain/loss, settle on.

Further, in no particular order, here are several more pieces of evidence that seem to support that this movie is a metaphorical representation of this process:

-The profound level of viscera inside “The Shimmer” could reflect the prominent, gut-wrenching emotions we feel when we journey into the deepest depths of facing loss/pain.

-When anyone goes into “The Shimmer,” s/he’s DNA literally changes, potentially representative of the profound changes we undergo when we bravely face loss/pain. Further, only when we reach the deepest reaches of our pain, “the lighthouse,” we then experience the most profound transformation: we become someone new (Oscar Isaac’s, Portman’s, and, arguably, the psychologist’s doubles, for instance). I think of the lighthouse as the moment where Portman, sitting with her psychologist, finally accepts and almost embraces that her and her husband profoundly drifted from one another and both made selfish decisions that they can never erase or forget.

-Lena consistently stating that she understands why her husband left (essentially to go to “The Shimmer”). I find it hard to imagine she is implying that she “understands why he wanted to leave her to end his life.” I find it much easier to imagine she is implying that she “understands why he left to take an introspective journey through ‘The Shimmer’ to learn how to continue to live either with or without her in his life.”

-Along these lines, when you consider the ending, first, Oscar Isaac’s character recovers after his wife also goes through “The Shimmer.” Second, they finally embrace when they both seem to recognize that they are both now different people. I believe the implication with all of this is that they both realized that in order for them to have any hope for a future, they both needed to face the intolerable emotions brought upon by the rift in their relationship and, a large part of that process, is recognizing and accepting that you can never be the same after doing so.

I hope you can appreciate this and I am very curious to hear your thoughts!

Warmly,
Jordan