Buster's Mal Heart

We see Jonas (Rami Malek) at three different stages in this movie. In one, he's floating in a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. He's been there a while. In another, he's a mountain man who survives Montana winters by breaking into rich people's empty vacation homes and staying there for a while. He calls into radio stations ranting about "the inversion" and has been dubbed "Buster". And in the third, Jonas is the night concierge for a hotel in Montana, trying to save up enough money to buy some land where he, his wife Marty (Kate Lyn Sheil), and his daughter can live as they please. He gets tangled up with a drifter (DJ Qualls) who won't give him his name and insists he is the last free man and there is going to be universal inversion soon.

For most of the movie, I was working under the assumption the issue here is the conflict between Jonas' desires. He wishes to live a life on his terms, where he isn't stuck working a job he hates that keeps him from spending time with his daughter. But his wife wants primarily to get out of her parents' house first, even if it means renting an apartment, which frustrates him. If he insists on things his way, he may lose his family, who he loves. Following the plan that best satisfies them may leave him trapped in a cycle he can't bear. I assumed his time as "Buster" was the end result. His tried to walk the tightrope, couldn't manage it, and here he is now, as close to the life he wanted as he can get.

In that scenario, the ocean scenes are I guess a metaphor for how trapped and lost he feels. He can't find land, can't get out of this place he's stuck in, and God gives him just enough to keep him going, but not enough he can actually get any place.

Then the film reveals the inversion thing might actually have happened? No one can find any evidence the mysterious guy ever existed, Buster sees a report on TV of someone finding a message in a bottle from a "Jonas" who has been missing for years. The two meet one night while Buster is hiding in a cave from the authorities. In the end, it seems like he grasps that neither choice was the right one and finds an option that gives him the best of both worlds for a little while. Maybe.

Unusually for me, the sci-fi aspects made the film worse. Otherwise, it's pretty good. The scenes of Jonas working in the mostly empty hotel alone at night reminded me of The Shining a bit, you could see how it would start to wear on him. How he always, day or night, is so worn down. He drifts off or dozes, and sometimes that's when the movie jumps to Buster or the rowboat. Gives it a nice surreal quality.