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Clip description
Joe (Clive Owen) carries his ailing wife Katy (Laura Fraser) into the bedroom. He runs to fetch her oxygen and comforts her at her bedside – all of which is quietly watched by their young son, Artie (Nicholas McAnulty). Soon afterwards Joe sees Artie playing outside in the dirt and goes over to give him the difficult news that his mother is dying. Initially he says that she’ll be going into a 'very deep sleep’ before spelling it out more bluntly. The news doesn’t seem to sink in: the boy plays with his toy monkey before running off to play on the slide.
Curator’s notes
This scene has the kind of unpredictability and psychological realism that usually comes from close observation of human behaviour. The boy’s matter-of-fact reaction to his father’s devastating news appears odd but is not to be taken at face value. We’ve seen at the start of the scene that Artie knows there’s something going on with his mother and is worried. When his father tells him the news it’s not that the boy isn’t interested, it’s more that he blots it out as a coping mechanism – it’s too much for him to come to terms with right now.
