Witchettygrub -
Pretty much everything in the movie was delusions and dreams Leonardo was having due to his emotions and memories. The dreams all were kinda coming together as the movie progressed. The early dreams showed the intense love between him and his deceased wife. The little girl was asking him why he didn't protect her and her brothers from their mom. When the car blew up, the little girl went to his wife to hold her hand. The wife seemed surprised. (The little girl was forgiving her.) The last dream was the sad reality of what really happened. His beloved wife was mentally ill, started their apartment on fire. He most likely hid that fact from the police (think elders in congregations, haha!) and moved his family to the country hoping the scenery would help her to "recover". After coming home and finding his kids dead and hearing his wife talk beyond crazy, he shot her. He was sickened by her actions, her comments, and though he loved the sane side of her, he couldn't handle her insane side. Guessing he probably was planning on shooting himself as well . . . Anyways, I think the gist of the movie was about what would take a happy, normal, intelligent person to completely lose it. How much could the mind possibility take before going completely insane. During the movie we thought how much more could this guy take from this crazy institution before he goes crazy himself? Well, he was already "crazy" (for good reason) when he got there! The docs were there to help him recover, sympathetic to his situation, but not wanting him to physically hurt others during his insanity. After that last dream the docs said that he got better in the past, but relapsed a few times. They let him live out his delusions (the majority of movie) in an extreme attempt to cure him once and for all. This "experiment" most likely worked. Leonardo couldn't live with the truth, it was too painful to remember the death of his family. He was playing his psychiatrist (his partner) pretending he thought the docs on the island were out to get him. The psychicatist and other docs all seemed sad and disappointed thinking he would never be sane again. (Again, these were good people trying to help him.) He wanted the lobotomy (scraping of frontal lobes which erases lots of memory) because he couldn't live with the truth. He told his psychiactist he would "rather die a good man than live like a monster". Remember the psychiactrist jumped up at that point as Leonardo was walking away. He realized that L wanted the surgery to erase all of the pain, being well meant remembering the past and having to deal with it from day to day. The psychiactist did not speak up to the other doctors, having empathy for Leonardo and his decision. Who could and would want to live with that?