The Ballad of Jack and Rose

On an island off the east coast live Jack and his nearly adult daughter Rose. They are the only two people remaining at what was once a thriving commune with dozens of people. The setting seems idyllic, but is in decline. Jack and Rose live in near isolation from the rest of the world, but the outside world is encroaching quickly. Rose has known no other life than this, but she needs to learn because Jack could soon be dead.

There is a good deal of Edenic imagery in this film: a man and woman, a natural paradise, a snake that plays a key role in the film. The story isn’t so much a retelling of the Eden story as it evocative of that story. It wants us to think in terms of Eden, even if Eden is getting pretty run down. Central to this story is the innocence of Rose. She is completely undefiled. She doesn’t see TV. She rarely sees other people. Her whole world revolves around her father, whom she adores – perhaps way too much. As she considers his possible death, she tells him “If you die, I’m going to die.�

But because Jack is dying, he brings into this seemingly perfect world some outside influences, his girl friend and her two teenaged sons. The whole dynamic changes and Rose is not pleased. She seems to have some pretty serious Electra issues. She doesn’t want to share her Eden. She certainly doesn’t want to share her father. The scene that seemed so tranquil with just the two of them, becomes much more volatile and dangerous with the others intruding on their paradise. We discover that even in her innocence she is capable of surprisingly sordid behavior.

Coming out of the film, my wife and I spent a fair amount of time picking at the plot. There are storylines that aren’t as fully developed as they could be, such as a battle between Jack and a developer. There are questions about the way the characters act that don’t seem quite right. Such problems do distract from the overall effect of the film. But the performances are sterling and the general trajectory of the story overcomes the flaws.

What makes the film powerful though is not so much the plot itself, but the mythic quality that it evokes. Myths are stories that are true. They may or may not be factual, but we value them because they teach us the truth. We know they are true because we know when we hear or see the stories that we are seeing what life is really like. The Ballad of Jack and Rose is that kind of story. It may be a bit extreme, but it is certainly the truth about what it means to be innocent and to lose that sense of innocence that comes with new knowledge. Hence the hints about Eden – an important story about innocence and its loss.

The whole idea of the now dead commune reminds us of the death of idealism and the naïveté of the sixties. Jack is the last vestige of that time, and now he is dying. He keeps trying to fight for those convictions, but we know that the time has long passed.

The story builds to what we expect to be a serious exclamation point, but instead we get a somewhat welcome, if not quite satisfying question mark. There is, though, a wordless post script that adds a touch of hope to the film.

Even with its flaws The Ballad of Jack and Rose is a strong story that lets us consider our own struggles between our innocence and a more worldly knowledge.