Rating: 4/5
The glass shatters, and Tomek drops from the broken window. He enters an A/V room with a flashlight and surveys the tech on the shelves. There, he finds a telescope that he takes with him. Back home, he sharpens the focus on the apartment opposite him.
Magda arrives at the post office, where Tomek works at the front desk. She hands over a notice. He looks through the files for the corresponding money order. When she looks away, he glares at her. He tells her there is nothing for her. Frustrated, Magda storms out.
Tomek’s godmother, with whom he lives while her son is away, invites him to watch Miss Poland. He obliges briefly before his alarm goes off. He turns it off, unveils the telescope, and looks through it to see Magda returning home. He makes instant coffee and buttered bread, watching, biting into his food when she bites into hers. Toek calls her to hear her voice but says nothing. When she hangs up, he calls back to apologize and then hangs up himself. A man comes over and starts fondling Magda. Tomek turns the telescope away. This time isn’t the first he’s seen her with someone, and it isn’t the same man each time.
When Tomek learns that Magda is having problems with milk delivery to her apartment, Tomek takes the job to be closer to her. But Tomek will experience the stark difference between fantasy and reality.
— Why do people cry? — You don't know? Haven't you ever cried? — Once. A long time ago.
The film expands on an episode from Decalogue, a ten-part miniseries where each episode focuses on one of the ten commandments. The original episode focused on “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” In that sense, the title is ironic—this film is not portraying healthy love. Like all of the Decalogue episodes, it neither condones nor forbades— it merely observes.
In Decalogue, each episode features the Man in White, an ambiguous character one can view as God, the Devil, or no one. One reading suggests that he gives the characters their wish fulfillment so that they may learn the error of their ways.
It wouldn’t serve much purpose if this film were only an expanded remake. Instead, the film revises elements of the story to explore a different approach. Grażyna Szapołowska, who plays Magda, contributed a different ending, which is no less bleak but plays into conventions surrounding romance, fantasy, and projection.
The film also expands on Tomek’s mental state, giving us a more complex sense of what he is fundamentally missing inside, whether through repression or imbalance. He doesn’t want to consummate any relationship with Magda—he only wants her to occupy his loneliness. He only breeches his line because his antics cause her suffering.
We also get a better sense of Magda’s pain and why she would entertain the attention of a 19-year-old peeping tom. So many men have come and gone in her life—love starts at arousal and ends at orgasm. She carries a self-loathing that she deems the root of her problems in life—she isn’t a good person, so why should anything good come to her?
This film is about love, but it isn’t a love story.