Asaph Polonsky's One Week and A Day is centered around two grieving parents, Eyal and Vicky, a israeli couple who have been dealing with the tragic death of their 15 year-old son. Picking up on the last day of Shiva, a period of seven days' formal mourning for the dead, One Week and A Day examines the tumultuous effect grief has put on this couple, capturing the strain such tragedy has on their shared relationship, as well as the deep-rooted psychological effects it has on each of them, whom use different coping mechanisms to attempt to deal with the pain. A film which manages to examine such a serious subject with a quiet vitality, One Week and A Day brings lots of comedic moments to its deconstruction of grief, detailing how re-commitment to life, and those close to you, is the best way to confront death and tragedy. Eyal's grief is one of utter detachment and angst, a character who becomes completely uninterested in the day-to-day routine. Despite urges from Vicky to return to his daily routine, Eyal instead steals medical marijuana from a hospice, skipping work and hanging out with his estranged neighbor's son, attempting to dull the pain through self-centered means and complete detachment from his typical routine. Vicky attempts to be far more externally assured in her presentation, a character who is quietly haunted yet desperately clings to normalcy and routine. While her husband blows off all his obligations, taking a direct, optics- be-damned approach to his grief, Vicky's strife is presented in a much more indirect way, a character who tries but routinely fails to return to normalcy. Unintentionally forgetting about various appointments and social obligations, Vicky is a character whose grief and deep-seeded pain is much more internalized and hidden from the outside world, yet she remains continuously impacted by it as she struggles return to normalcy. Both Eyal and Vicky are in emotional solitude, with One Week and A Day beautifully capturing how grief and emotional pain constrict one's ability to more forward, with each character's lack of communication and grief-fueled angst only creating strain on their current lives. The film's moment of enlightenment comes towards the end of the film, where Eyal himself is confronted with another man whose experienced death and tragedy. While Eyal listens to this man's grief-stricken words, One Week and A Day deconstructs how death itself is something which all of us as individuals experience, exhibiting how our shared sense of empathy and general kindness to one and other are paramount in our ability to move forward in life and continue to cherish the moments we still have. In this moment Eyal recognizes the selfish nature of his grief, understanding that he is not the only individual going through pain and loss, with the only righteous path being one fueled by more general kindness and empathy, not self-centered detachment. In this sense, One Week and A Day is a quietly assured celebration of life itself, detailing in Eyal and Vicky characters who struggle to move on due to their internalized pain and angst, whose only sense of true peace comes towards the end of the film with Eyal showing an ability to open up to his wife and recommit to life, being a man who remembers the goodness he still has in front of him.
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June 2023
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