The Last Conception/Film

The Last Conception a film based on the novel by Gabriel Constans
Directed by: Gabriela Ledesma

When I read the blurb for this film it was described as a “multi-cultural family rom-com.” I went to the link, free with ads, I hadn’t seen ads in awhile so I figured, why not? Maybe it’s my crusty, dusty “bad” for not being an avid watcher of much of anything, but to me it seemed no more multi-cultural than any other film or show. I had trouble seeing the romance in the film as well, though to be honest, I am not in the habit of looking. Even someone as romantically vapid as me would have a hard time ignoring the fact that a lot of the portrayals of love in the movie were conditional or obligatory rather than unconditional. As to the comedy aspect, that too, was sadly missing. Then again, I am dead inside.

It starts off the same as any other story of its time, immediately establishing progressive points of view with inter-racial coupling and a gay main character. Check and check. The really intriguing part about this movie is that it was about Indian culture. It tried to be eye-opening, watching a family try and maintain some semblance of balance between duty and forgiveness and obligation within the framework of an unfamiliar culture, it wasn’t. I got the sense that in this family it was never as simple as balancing two sides, it was more like a juggling act and they had a lot in the air. While the characters all struggle with their own issues of vulnerability and strength there is always an underlying sense of family. You see the characters get out of their own way a lot and that kind of momentum is inspiring.

The romantic aspects of the movie are mostly seen in the relationship the parents have. The other characters are so shallow it’s hard to care very much about them. One is a student, the other is really tall. Hurdles rise in front of them, some small, some a little taller, but they are cleared quite easily and with little to no conflict. When one of them does something out of character we don’t know enough about them to know why, nor are we invested enough to care. The comedy seems to mostly be represented by the mother doing typical mother things and by the main characters brother in law, the sore thumb of the family.

The family is accepting and open minded. We can see this in their acceptance of the aforementioned main characters bumbling brother in law, Baloo. Actually, I don’t remember his name but the film portrayal is like Baloo, the bear, likes to float on his back down the river eating snacks. He’s clumsy and bumbles around, a good-natured idiot who can’t see he’s being had. It’s kind of an established stereo type sort of thing. The whole time I watched I had the feeling that I wanted to get to know the characters more, what drives them and does it go deeper than what this movie is showing me? Perhaps things a book has time for but a movie doesn’t.

While it was refreshing to see a film about an under-represented culture, I don’t feel that the depiction in the movie was terribly accurate, at least not to everyone, even within the depicted culture. I can’t know this for sure as I know very little about Indian culture. That being said, the family is pretty well off and if every other culture is an indication, and human nature is evidence, things get done a little differently when poverty isn’t an issue. The point here being that sometimes, it isn’t really about the specificity of culture or even race, it’s about class. The obligations are different, the rules are different, the resources available, or not available, set a different tone altogether. The tone of this movie worked really well as there was none of the baggage that would have come up if poverty had been part of the narrative. Poverty is a plot theme that has been done too much and is rarely done well.

Then, as I’m merrily watching and it’s all pretty standard, we get the news from out of the blue that this family may have some spiritual destiny. The spiritual element is represented by the grandmother arriving with a troop of monks. She belongs to a sect and has news for them. The spiritual element involved could have been used as a catalyst for the characters to make a multi-cultural point about coming to the awareness that it isn’t about bloodlines, it’s about a way of living life. The groovy thing is that they already seemed to be living that way for the most part. None of the characters were the worst thing they said or the best thing they did and they seemed to genuinely try to do the best they could in each moment, very Buddhist of them.

There was a touch of being too eager to please others in the mother, a little too much entitlement and unnecessary broodiness, despite all the support she got, from the main character. Some of the depictions were a little stereo typical, but overall, these people were nice. The story was nice. Again, I wish I could have learned more about the characters. I think their familial bond and the juggling act came together nicely. It might have been better to leave off the spiritual epiphany that never went anywhere anyway and instead round out the characters and explore the weight of the choices they have to make. It was as though the personal obstacles, which were major life choices, were glossed over for a spiritual element that was added only to never be fully explored. I wanted all of one story-line rather than so many story-lines, so little time.

There are some funny bits at the very end, after the credits roll. The spiritual question is brought up again in the context of the film and even though a couple of the questions are brought up in a light, comedic kind of way, they are actually good points to ruminate on. This was the kind of novel to film adaptation where you know the book just has to be better so you really want to read it. Was the film groundbreaking? No. It was well cast, well produced and pleasant to watch. While it did have a lot of popular themes none of them felt like they were agendas being pushed on me. It touched on a lot of things that aren’t often depicted in mainstream media, including Indian culture just being allowed to be. The relaxed tone of the movie had that part dialed. All of the elements are there for there to be more. It was like sitting at a table full of delicious food, all the best, but it’s all a hologram