Look Both Ways Practice SAC
“I suppose everyone has to witness something ghastly one day”. Look Both Ways argues that it is impossible to prevent personal suffering. Discuss.

The film ‘Look Both Ways’ argues that it is impossible to prevent personal suffering. The main characters of the film, Nick, Meryl, Andy, Anna, and Phil, all have bad experiences throughout the film. The film’s director, Sarah Watt, has set ‘Look Both Ways’ in Adelaide, Australia. the storyline is centred around the five main characters mentioned above, and their interrelated experiences over one weekend.

The film starts out following a huge train crash, close to the city. Many people have died, or are still missing. This gives the audience a good idea of what two of the major concepts of the film are: death and grief.
The storyline continues with these same concepts, throughout the five characters.

Nick is a man of age roughly 35, who is a photographer for the local paper. He is fit and healthy and lives alone. Nick’s father died of cancer the year before, which is the reason why Nick decides to move back to Adelaide – for his Mum. They are both still grieving over his death. On Friday, Nick visits the doctor and discovers that he too, has developed cancer. Nick suffers from this news, and is unable to tell his friends until the Sunday. Nick’s and his father’s cancer was unpreventable – there is really nothing you can do to stop it, and the pain and suffering that went along with it.

After Nick finds out he has cancer, he meets Meryl. Meryl had arrived home on the train after travelling to her father’s funeral. On her way walking home, Meryl witnesses Rob getting ran over by a train. Loss is another prominent concept in ‘Look Both Ways’. Although something bad hasn’t happened to you, it is still just as hard to get over someone else’s misfortune, in Nick’s case – whether you knew them, or Meryl’s – you did not.

Andy works with Nick at the local paper. He hates his job as a journalist. Andy is the sort of person who thinks everyone has an agenda.
He writes an article about Rob’s death, asking the question whether his death was an accident, or a suicide.
He has one failed marriage, with two kids, and a failed relationship with his exgirlfriend Anna.
Andy’s suffering is emotional, and not visable to others. He pretends not to care about things, and never takes responsibility for what he has done. He pushes his loved ones away, and although he doesn’t say it, he suffers emotionally from not being able to see his children. Personal suffering does not have to have a physical cause, it can also be emotional.

Although Watt has places Anna as a kind of background character, her problems are just as big as the rest. Anna is Andy’s ex girlfriend, who discovers she is pregnant. Anna suffers from the responsibility and the choice of whether or not to keep the baby or to abort. Anna’s suffering is emotional, and no-one except Andy knows about it. She has compassion for the baby, but at the same time she doesn’t know if she can handle having it by herself.

Phil is Nick and Andy’s boss, and the editor of the local paper. Phil has a wife and two children at home, but he neglects them. He spends the majority of his time working late hours at the office. Phil suffers grief over hearing about Nick’s cancer, and starts to realise the more important things in life, his family who had been suffering, without a dad or husband for years.

The title ‘Look Both Ways’ is a metaphor for life. To not only look the way of happiness, and ignore the other way, because something bad could be headed for you. It tells us that although it is impossible to escape personal suffering, whether that be the death of a loved one, the pain and suffering from a serious condition, emotional things such as not being able to see your children, or neglecting them, happiness will always be around the corner. ‘Look Both Ways’ proves this. At the end of the film, we see a short photomontage of the main character’s lives a short time on.
Nick had been treated for cancer, and is married to Meryl. They go around the world together.
Andy and Anna have the baby, and are very happy together.
Phil gives up smoking, and decides to focus his attention more on his two daughters and his wife, rather than spending all his time working at the office.
All the characters in ‘Look Both Ways’ suffering from the negative, bad things in their lives, but as the title suggests, happy times were just around the corner.