This film shows two people who were cowardly cheated by their spouses, who they respectively loved very much until they discovered the treachery; and, frustrated and enraged, they react planning and executing such a cruel vengeance. About this situation a first question catches our mind: Can love turn into hate? Would someone be able to submit to such an enormous distress someone who had been, until a few moments ago, his or her most significant love partner?
The relation between love and hate is a fertile area for debate, and a subject we can approach by more than one way. One of these is philosophy. For example, about this point we may refer to a Renaissance philosopher, Domenico Campanella (1568-1639), for whom power, knowledge and love may be very easily confounded with their contraries: power may turn into impotence; knowledge, into ignorance; and love, into hate.
Much more recently, French philosopher André Compte-Sponville, in his "A Short Treatise on the Great Virtues", also reveals his belief that love and hate are feelings that communicate with each other. Quoting him: "Eros is a jealous god. He who loves wants to possess his beloved and keep her for himself alone. If she is happy with someone else, you would rather see her dead! If he is happy with someone else, you would rather have him unhappy with you."
And, of course, we may also make use of poetry to reflect about this subject. Bengali poet Sri Chinmoy, for example, made theses verses: "Hate is a disguised form of love. / You can only hate someone that you have the capacity to love because if you are really indifferent, / you cannot even get up enough energy to hate him."
On the other hand, in her book "Walls of Corn and Other Poems", the American poet Ellen P. Allerton (1835-1893) included this "Love Hate Poem": "Although a thousand leagues two hearts divide, / That love has joined, the gulf is not so great / As that twixt two, who, dwelling side by side / Behold between, the black abyss of Hate."
A second question evoked by this film refers to the great difficulty people have to completely forgive someone for having inflicted him or her any kind of suffering. As to this question, we may reflect on the words of a Croatian theologian, also a professor in Yale University, Miroslav Volf: "Forgiveness is a gift", he says, "and if it is given, it is given freely. Forgiveness is the opposite of retaliation, but not the opposite of punishment." And he concludes: "Of course forgiving also means to let down the feeling of resentment towards the evil-doer."
The film ends before we can check if in each couple, Abby & Neil and Tom & Judy, the spouses actually reconcile or split apart from each other. However, taking into account Volf's words above, we may reasonably presume that in both cases reconciliation would be almost impossible: Abby will have to forgive Neil, and Tom, to forgive Judy before a reconciliation may happen, and in both marriages both sides have a lot of reasons to be resented with his/her spouse's attitude. Forgiveness is quite improbable in this context, because it would have to be a two-way forgiveness: if forgiveness and retaliation are opposites, as Volf says, it is easy to foresee that the fierce mortification Abby and Tom inflicted to Neil and Judy will nurture, from now on, nothing more than pure resentment, in Abby and Tom towards Neil and Judy, as well as vice-versa, ruining any chance of forgiveness in both couples.
A third and last question calls our attention in "Butterfly on a Wheel": it refers to the absolute coldness and the enviable competence with which Tom and Abby performed their devilish plan. Although very complex and rather dangerous, the whole operation they decided to implement was brilliantly executed all along, ending in a total success.
And, although their aim was deliberately hurt their spouses, to whom each of them, Abby and Tom, had been emotionally tied for many years, both were able, nevertheless, to put their feelings totally aside during the act, fulfilling an impeccable dramatic performance, which hit perfectly the target. Sincerely, only mafia members or psychos are really able to show such a high level of proficiency in the circumstances!
The relation between love and hate is a fertile area for debate, and a subject we can approach by more than one way. One of these is philosophy. For example, about this point we may refer to a Renaissance philosopher, Domenico Campanella (1568-1639), for whom power, knowledge and love may be very easily confounded with their contraries: power may turn into impotence; knowledge, into ignorance; and love, into hate.
Much more recently, French philosopher André Compte-Sponville, in his "A Short Treatise on the Great Virtues", also reveals his belief that love and hate are feelings that communicate with each other. Quoting him: "Eros is a jealous god. He who loves wants to possess his beloved and keep her for himself alone. If she is happy with someone else, you would rather see her dead! If he is happy with someone else, you would rather have him unhappy with you."
And, of course, we may also make use of poetry to reflect about this subject. Bengali poet Sri Chinmoy, for example, made theses verses: "Hate is a disguised form of love. / You can only hate someone that you have the capacity to love because if you are really indifferent, / you cannot even get up enough energy to hate him."
On the other hand, in her book "Walls of Corn and Other Poems", the American poet Ellen P. Allerton (1835-1893) included this "Love Hate Poem": "Although a thousand leagues two hearts divide, / That love has joined, the gulf is not so great / As that twixt two, who, dwelling side by side / Behold between, the black abyss of Hate."
A second question evoked by this film refers to the great difficulty people have to completely forgive someone for having inflicted him or her any kind of suffering. As to this question, we may reflect on the words of a Croatian theologian, also a professor in Yale University, Miroslav Volf: "Forgiveness is a gift", he says, "and if it is given, it is given freely. Forgiveness is the opposite of retaliation, but not the opposite of punishment." And he concludes: "Of course forgiving also means to let down the feeling of resentment towards the evil-doer."
The film ends before we can check if in each couple, Abby & Neil and Tom & Judy, the spouses actually reconcile or split apart from each other. However, taking into account Volf's words above, we may reasonably presume that in both cases reconciliation would be almost impossible: Abby will have to forgive Neil, and Tom, to forgive Judy before a reconciliation may happen, and in both marriages both sides have a lot of reasons to be resented with his/her spouse's attitude. Forgiveness is quite improbable in this context, because it would have to be a two-way forgiveness: if forgiveness and retaliation are opposites, as Volf says, it is easy to foresee that the fierce mortification Abby and Tom inflicted to Neil and Judy will nurture, from now on, nothing more than pure resentment, in Abby and Tom towards Neil and Judy, as well as vice-versa, ruining any chance of forgiveness in both couples.
A third and last question calls our attention in "Butterfly on a Wheel": it refers to the absolute coldness and the enviable competence with which Tom and Abby performed their devilish plan. Although very complex and rather dangerous, the whole operation they decided to implement was brilliantly executed all along, ending in a total success.
And, although their aim was deliberately hurt their spouses, to whom each of them, Abby and Tom, had been emotionally tied for many years, both were able, nevertheless, to put their feelings totally aside during the act, fulfilling an impeccable dramatic performance, which hit perfectly the target. Sincerely, only mafia members or psychos are really able to show such a high level of proficiency in the circumstances!