Do you hear anything?

May 23, 2015

Grace and I found ourselves with a free bit of time in the hotel today before heading to the ballpark to watch Drew and his cronies play.  We chased through the channels and landed on HBO’s award-winning miniseries, "Olive Kitteridge."  Not having watched the prior two parts of the series, we were a tad lost at first but captivated by the amazing Frances McDormand (a fave of mine ever since she declared “I think I’m gonna barf” as the pregnant police detective in “Fargo”) as Olive.  It became clear that Olive is a mother and widow in the final years of her life and that she has a broken relationship with her son that was apparently fueled by her difficult relationship with his father.  She is crusty and rigid and, after her husband dies, even more closed off.  She is on a walk with her dog Clancy when she happens upon Jack (Bill Murray) who is equally miserable, having just lost his wife six months earlier. “Then you’re in hell,” Olive remarks.  He doesn’t disagree. It is a sad sight, the two of them, lost and grief-struck and full of regret.   Olive admits to Jack matter-of-factly that she is just waiting for Clancy to die so she can shoot herself.  They attempt a friendship, but it is difficult for two so isolated in pain and thought.

When Clancy dies soon thereafter, Olive takes a blanket, a note of explanation, and a gun with one bullet to the woods and is just about to end her life when three children interrupt her.  She covers the gun, they scamper off, and her shell cracks.  She weeps silently and shakes her head as if gripping her mistakes, her loss and her second chance all-at-once. We catch a glimpse of her feeling. It may sound morose, but I was mesmerized.  

The point of this little synopsis is what happens next.  Olive leaves the woods and goes to see Jack. She finds him resting in bed.  “Are you feeling poorly?” she asks.

“Just soul-poor, “ he replies.  “Body keeps banging on.”

In a rare moment of need and affection, Olive lays down next to Jack and places her head on his chest.  It is neither awkward or necessarily warm, but Jack asks, “do you hear anything? Am I still alive?”

Olive replies, “Keeps banging on."