Laboratory worker Miriam recalls the deaths of her parents. (0:22)
Miriam arranges kitchen items symmetrically. (0:31)
Flashback? (1:06)
A policeman takes Miriam’s professor husband Saul to the storeroom of Miriam’s hoarded glass objects. (1:10)
Saul tells the children, Eliza and Aaron, referring to Miriam, “She was... confused.” (1:13)
Saul visits Miriam in a psychiatric hospital. He tells her, “Miriam, it was a metaphor.” (1:14)
Saul tells Aaron, ”Your mother has been stealing things... She's in a mental institution...” (1:20)
Apparently traumatized by the death of her parents and believing her relationship with Saul has rescued her, Miriam compulsively accumulates symbolic items. When her daughter Eliza's gift for spelling brings her much closer to Saul he distances from the Aaron and Miriam, crystallizing the formation of interlocking relationship triangles. Eliza's relationship with her brother appears to be the most functional in this family. Is hers a dysfunctional family role?
Compare to The Onion Field.