It’s not every day that you come across a film that moves you for the better; Silver Haze is certainly one. A survivor’s tale through and through, the movie draws inspiration from actor Vicky Knight’s personal life. Childhood trauma, depression, and abuse—every topic becomes a conversation starter and really pushes you to have the courage to talk.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Movie?
A vicious fire in her father’s pub changed a young Franky’s life, and it’s been 15 years since she’s asked for answers from the person responsible. Her father rejected the family, married the same woman Frankie held responsible, and started a new life with her. Frankie’s mother is an alcoholic and helpless most of the time, and her family somehow gets by. Frankie’s job as a nurse is the only source of normalcy in her life, as she spends the rest of the time coping with what happened to her and the family in all its self-destructive ways. Frankie’s way of dealing with her pain includes smoking weed and having meaningless intimacy with her boyfriend. All of this changes when she meets Florence, a woman who just healed from a suicide attempt, and Frankie and Florence’s relationship drives the plot.
How Does Frankie Change Her Life?
Before meeting Florence, Frankie never thought of her sexuality as anything but straight. Florence and Frankie get close in a scenic field of grass, and this movie really captures the essence of falling in love. Frankie breaks up with her longtime beau Flynn, destroying his plans for a Barbados honeymoon in the process. She even bids goodbye to her sister Leah, and they’re evidently the best of mates. When Frankie’s family sees the two kissing, her mother and brother turn into professional homophobes. Their rejection leads to Frankie leaving the house, and a new life with Florence is as dreamy as it gets.
How Do Florence And Frankie Deal With Their Relationship?
Florence is kind; she loves Frankie, and they both seem extremely into each other. The nuances of their forbidden love take up most of their days. Flo teaches her how to swim, takes her shopping, and they play with each other in muddy fields. The dreamlike romance turns into a rebellious act when the couple are harassed and physically abused in a bus by Leah’s boyfriend. This incident marks the first signs of Florence and Frankie growing apart and Frankie turning to her usual ways of dealing with pain. When Frankie receives an anonymous text on Facebook, she gets hopeful that she’ll finally nail Jane Woodbridge for the crime she’s done. But the cops don’t take a confession over a text seriously, and Frankie and Florence try to come up with other ways to destroy Jane’s life.
What Happens When Frankie Throws A Molotov Cocktail At Her Father’s House?
Florence talks Frankie into taking revenge on Jane. The fire incident, along with her father eventually abandoning the family for Jane, has obviously haunted Frankie all her life. She once overheard him say nobody would want her with all the burn marks on her body. Florence and Frankie, two young women, take their fate into their own hands and manage to buy vodka and fuel to make a Molotov cocktail. Frankie throws the bottle at their house, but the impact isn’t as big as they expected it to be. The young kid picks the burning bottle up, and a screaming Jane manages to throw the bottle out in the street while Florence and Frankie run away. This haunts Frankie to some extent, and seeing the kid with the fire reminds her of her own trauma.
Why Does Florence Break Up With Frankie?
Florence starts to fall back into self-destruction when Frankie is trying to give her a better life. Frankie is loving and supportive of her, and she only wants Florence to come off the meds and live like a normal person. When Florence’s grandmother Alice asks her to turn the music down, she snaps and walks out of the house. This little walkout leads to Frankie and Alice finally getting to know each other and enjoying each other’s company. Florence returns, and she’s done with having a girlfriend who is possessive and trying to control her life. She packs her bags and leaves. It’s evident that Florence has been on the spectra for a long time, and this little affair with Frankie was nothing but a whim. Florence thought she loved Frankie, but by this time she has realized she’s not actually into her.
How Does Frankie Comfort Alice In Her Last Days?
Alice is a cancer patient going through the final stages of her life. The doctor tells Frankie to focus on the supportive care more than the treatment. Frankie finds the mother figure she never had in Alice, and Alice also loves Frankie for all the qualities Florence never had. Losing Florence was much less hard for Frankie because she’s now got a family in Alice and Flo’s autistic brother Jack. They dance, go to the beach, cook their meals, and Frankie even sets Alice up on a dating app. Florence got tired of waiting for Alice to die, and she started an obscure acting career when a pretentious director manipulated her. But Frankie couldn’t do that; she had already made Alice her own nana. Alice lives the final days of her life in pure happiness with Frankie and Jack and eventually passes in her sleep.
Does Frankie Forgive Her Father?
After Alice’s death, Frankie starts getting her life together and moves on from Florence. She makes people pick a number for how happy they are on a scale of one to ten. Despite her life not being in a great state, she tries to help everyone around her. She and Leah get close again, although Leah’s conversion to Islam is random and doesn’t really add much to the story. Frankie’s acceptance of letting go of the rage and anger comes from the time she spent with Alice, and her transformation into a person trying to live her life well is an ode to Alice’s memory. Frankie finally pays a visit to her father, and he recognizes her. All her life, Frankie thought that her father wouldn’t recognize her, but to her surprise, even her little brother knew her. The man is a coward for leaving the family, but he never erased their existence from his life.
Silver Haze excels at showing the imperfections in people and how trauma can shape lives. This movie never glorifies the ways people cope with grief but only makes it human. Life is tough, and there’s nothing wrong with a child not managing to forget their trauma and carrying it into adulthood.
