It seems there are twos aspects of this film that appeal to many people's emotions.
1) Nostalgia: After thirty years of time during which Toto kept himself physically and mentally away from home, it is understandable that the memories from the distant past flood into Toto, although personally I did not feel particularly nostalgic by watching that.
2) Love: According to many, the ending is meant to fill Toto with love he lost, but this interpretation is not plausible because it refers to different kinds of love. After his loss of relationship with Elena, Toto left home and had relationships with many women in search for a better heterosexual love, while the ending scene only means Alfredo's paternal love. These two are qualitatively different; the latter kind of love cannot be taken to compensate for the missing former. Considering the special emotional attachment given by Toto to Elena, it is implausible that Toto finds any true love with any other woman, which is precisely why he has had many relationships ever since he lost Elena. An interpretation of the ending scene as a demonstration of the former (heterosexual) kind of love is also implausible, because it is only a film projected on the screen, not real for Toto himself. In a shorter version of this film at least, therefore, Toto is left with Alfredo's enduring paternal love but without heterosexual love with a woman. This aspect is incomplete.
These two aspects were emotionally not convincing to me. Perhaps all I need to appreciate its true value is a couple of more decades of life experience, long enough to look far back into the past and be nostalgic. For the time being, 6 out of 10.
1) Nostalgia: After thirty years of time during which Toto kept himself physically and mentally away from home, it is understandable that the memories from the distant past flood into Toto, although personally I did not feel particularly nostalgic by watching that.
2) Love: According to many, the ending is meant to fill Toto with love he lost, but this interpretation is not plausible because it refers to different kinds of love. After his loss of relationship with Elena, Toto left home and had relationships with many women in search for a better heterosexual love, while the ending scene only means Alfredo's paternal love. These two are qualitatively different; the latter kind of love cannot be taken to compensate for the missing former. Considering the special emotional attachment given by Toto to Elena, it is implausible that Toto finds any true love with any other woman, which is precisely why he has had many relationships ever since he lost Elena. An interpretation of the ending scene as a demonstration of the former (heterosexual) kind of love is also implausible, because it is only a film projected on the screen, not real for Toto himself. In a shorter version of this film at least, therefore, Toto is left with Alfredo's enduring paternal love but without heterosexual love with a woman. This aspect is incomplete.
These two aspects were emotionally not convincing to me. Perhaps all I need to appreciate its true value is a couple of more decades of life experience, long enough to look far back into the past and be nostalgic. For the time being, 6 out of 10.
