Honestly Linda was better off without her husband, who put her in this predicament, and he was just trying to hold on to something that wasn’t even there
I suspect her very complicated grief could have come to some kind of resolution - I noticed in various parts through the film that Linda is clearly using the reborn doll she’s named Chloe after her daughter who passed away as some kind of transition // comfort object. And part of her seemingly knows that this doll is not alive, even if she herself is unaware of this on a conscious level. She knows to avoid situations in which the Chloe doll would be discovered as not a living human infant. She makes excuses for why Chloe doll is quieter than a human infant. And requires less active caregiving. What really stuck out to me was the scene where Linda talks about how hard it is to be a mother. Seemed to me that the husband was rushing her letting go // grieving process because he himself needed them to be over their daughter’s death. Linda’s complicated grief became inconvenient for him. And thus pathological. Of course she ran away from him. And made a space to grieve in private. In her own very unique way. In her own time - however long this process took. I love that Emanuel respected this poor woman’s grief - it took her 18 years to bury her mother. Of course understood - some, enough anyway, all the while knowing she didn’t need to fix Linda. Just sit with her: grieving together.
Honestly Linda was better off without her husband, who put her in this predicament, and he was just trying to hold on to something that wasn’t even there
I suspect her very complicated grief could have come to some kind of resolution - I noticed in various parts through the film that Linda is clearly using the reborn doll she’s named Chloe after her daughter who passed away as some kind of transition // comfort object. And part of her seemingly knows that this doll is not alive, even if she herself is unaware of this on a conscious level. She knows to avoid situations in which the Chloe doll would be discovered as not a living human infant. She makes excuses for why Chloe doll is quieter than a human infant. And requires less active caregiving. What really stuck out to me was the scene where Linda talks about how hard it is to be a mother.
Seemed to me that the husband was rushing her letting go // grieving process because he himself needed them to be over their daughter’s death. Linda’s complicated grief became inconvenient for him. And thus pathological. Of course she ran away from him. And made a space to grieve in private. In her own very unique way. In her own time - however long this process took. I love that Emanuel respected this poor woman’s grief - it took her 18 years to bury her mother. Of course understood - some, enough anyway, all the while knowing she didn’t need to fix Linda. Just sit with her: grieving together.