'The world to come' is an action that is timeless. If the main characters lived not in rural New York of the nineteenth century, but, say, in the metropolis that we see now, the meaning of the work would not change. Characters, whether they are dressed in cheap work suits or in trendy modern things, are very recognizable, though painfully depressing, but at the same time beautiful in their sadness images.
In the center of the plot is a woman named Abigail (Katherine Waterstone), who humbly bears the burden of the wife of a very mediocre farmer, helps her husband in everything and in her spare time keeps a magazine that saves her from a depressed routine. Having survived the death of her daughter, she cannot yet recover from this blow of fate, so her records become not only a means of passing time, but also the main outlet, a place where thoughts acquire materiality and build a world of beautiful sadness, from where the girl does not want to return. However, meeting Tully (Vanessa Kirby), a new neighbor who looks more like a princess of dreams than an ordinary farmer’s wife, breathes hope for a better life and love into the already desperate Abigail. But the living conditions, the backward manners of time and the endless, even panicky fear of husbands - all this becomes a real obstacle, which even the brightest feeling cannot cope with.
The film tells the story from Abigail’s perspective, rather even in terms of diary and magazine entries, where she pours out her feelings. Her words are so beautiful and sublime that they absolutely do not fit with the rural mud and hopelessness that we are forced to admire throughout the film. But this dissonance between the picture and the words, in fact, emphasizes the spiritual world of the heroine, her isolation from the fuss of life, caused by the loss of a beloved child. We seem to be in confession, and these beautiful words that sound behind the scenes, like the sound of the divine liturgy illuminate the existence of all the heroes. The image of her husband - a harsh, living by inertia person performed by Casey Affleck (the main lover of festival dramas, as recent years show) very beautifully complements the main character. While not inherently evil or unjust, he is trapped in a cage of prejudice, making it difficult for him to be honest with his wife. They are united by grief, separated from each other by a harsh upbringing. Her duty is meekness and obedience, his is economy and power in the house. But these qualities are nothing but martyrdom to which they were condemned by education. And although both images are typical archetypes of their time, there are many traits that modern people still suffer from. Tully, like Katerina in the characterization of teachers of literature, becomes ' a ray of light in the dark realm' illuminating not only the life of Abigail, but also partly Dyer, her husband. She bursts into their lives rapidly and, without suspecting it, changes everything irrevocably. The interaction of the characters in the film can be analyzed in a separate text, because everyone is ambiguous and deep image. Nature, the countryside, in which there are heroes, becomes a translator of their experiences, so at the moment of the strongest emotional torment, a snowstorm begins in front of the viewer, the hum from which leaves a deep trace in the heart.
'The world to come' is a film that is timeless in its ideological component. The choice of the creators of the mid-nineteenth century in the United States, I think, is intended to visually emphasize the depression of the world in which the characters are located. Unsettlement of immigrants, lack of money and hope for a better existence is pressing so hard that the first thirty minutes of the film even the most optimistic viewer embraces hopelessness. But in the eyes of the director, the poor world of the material must always be opposed to the rich world of the spiritual. Mud from blurred roads, icy sheds and houses, snowstorms and rains – all win spring and summer as a symbol of the rebirth of the main characters and their rapprochement.