Aloft (film)

Plot

Nana Kunning (Jennifer Connelly), a struggling mother of two young sons, takes her children out into an isolated location. She, along with other parents and children, have come there in order to be seen by the Architect, a faith healer who heals by constructing small delicate structures out of branches and then bringing patients inside them. The Architect works by lottery and Nana's son Gully, who has an inoperable brain tumour, is not chosen to be saved. Nana and the rest of the crowd stay to watch the healing happen. Before the Architect can touch the patient, the falcon of Ivan (Nana's other son) crashes into the structure. Nana goes inside to try and lead the falcon outside but the Architect stops her and allows the falcon to break out on its own which destroys the structure. The crowd is furious at Nana and her sons for ruining the healing and refuse to give her a ride unless they abandon the animal. When Ivan finally releases the falcon, one of the men shoots it down in front of him.

Sometime later the Architect arrives at Nana's job at a hog farm, in order to tell her that she healed the blind boy she touched in the structure. When Nana protests she did not do anything, the Architect informs her that he never even touched the boy's eyes, while she did. Nana ignores the Architect. She is surprised when the man who shot down her son's falcon, now comes to her and pleads with her to save his child. He tells her he cannot wait until the Architect's next performance.

Nana goes to the Architect, and he begins to train her in creating the structures needed to heal people. In order to fix the legs of a little girl, Nana builds a swing. Nana instructs her sons to wait in the car while she heals the girl. Ivan grows bored and restless, causing him to leave the car. Unbeknownst to her, he sees his mother on the swing with the girl. Angered and not understanding what he had witnessed, Ivan takes the car and attempts to drive Gully home. He instead crashes the car into a lake.

When the ice begins to break, Ivan persuades Gully to jump out the window. He is unaware that there is a large hole in the ice, directly where Gully jumped. Gully drowns under the ice. Nana is crushed by Gully's death and decides to leave for a short time to concentrate on her faith healing.

Decades later, a grown up Ivan (Cillian Murphy) is visited by a journalist named Jannia Ressmore (Mélanie Laurent). She is ostensibly there for an interview on the falcons which Ivan now breeds and raises. When Ressmore asks him if he is still in contact with his mother, Ivan cuts the interview short. Ressmore leaves him with a video of his mother from the late 1990s. When Ivan learns that Ressmore intends to interview his mother, he decides to join her. Ivan leaves behind his own wife and young child, and takes one of his falcons with him.

Ressmore and Ivan travel to Nunavut where they find that the road has been blocked by a truck accident. They decide to continue on foot. In the dark, Ivan begins to hear the ice cracking. He stops walking and warns Ressmore not to come near him. She does, however, and takes him by the hand. She convinces him to walk step by step, as if the ice breaking was a hallucination. They are picked up by a local man who takes them to his home and lends them his truck.

On the road Ivan and Ressmore grow close. When they arrive at the checkpoint to Nana's retreat Ivan is upset. He realizes that Ressmore is actually sick, and that the real reason she made the trip was so that Nana could heal her. The two fight, but when Ressmore tries to leave and see Nana, Ivan sends his falcon out to her. She stops the car and waits for him to join her.

In the tent where Nana lives, Ivan sees her for the first time in decades. He initially sits back while she is interviewed by Ressmore. He eventually asks her, how a mother could abandon her son. Nana tells him that the grief from Gully's death was too much.

While the people hoping to be healed by Nana unwrap the stones they have been given, to see who has won the lottery to be healed, Nana tells a story of a man who fell under ice. While Nana is telling the story, Ressmore unwraps the stone she was given and sees it is a green one, which means she has lost the lottery. However, Ivan slips a white stone into her hands and Ressmore begins to cry with relief, knowing she will be healed.

Cast

Production

Filming took place in Manitoba, Canada.

Reception and box office

Reaction to the film in America was mostly negative, earning a Metacritic score of 34%.

Critical reception in Spain was more positive, with El País calling it "hypnotic and exciting", while also receiving good notices from film magazines Fotogramas and Cinemanía.

In the United States, the film had a limited release starting in May 2015. It took in receipts of $53,086 during its run. In Spain it was seen by more than 50,000 people during its theatrical run, grossing a total of €262,355.