Part 6: Space
With Calum having an increasingly difficult time regulating himself around Sophie, this segment of the film features more space between them. There’s almost no interaction between the main characters in this stretch of the film.
It begins with a shot of someone’s face underneath a wet wash cloth, breathing in and out rhythmically. I assume this is Calum, but the shot seems disconnected from the movie’s timeline.
Sophie is then seen getting some kind of elaborate braid in her hair, with fabric weaved into locks.
The movie then cuts to a rug store somewhere in Turkey. Calum is lovingly examining a rug and asks Sophie’s opinion of it. She thinks it’s beautiful. He tells her, probably just having heard this from the salesman, that each rug has a unique story. The salesman then comes in with those wonderful small glasses of tea that is served in that part of the world in those curved glasses that help cool the liquid closest to your mouth. Sophie makes an effort to say thank you in Turkish to the salesman, but doesn’t seem to get it right on several tries.
Calum asks the salesman the price, and it comes to 850 pounds. Given all of the corners that Calum has cut to make this vacation possible so far, passing on the carpet seems like the reasonable move.
They are back near the pool now and, sensing Sophie is bored, Calum suggests she introduce herself to some girls. But then the two boys who played pool against them before walk by, with a girl in tow this time, and ask Sophie if she wants to play again. One of the boys says something about playing for an hour and then coming back to the pool, Sophie says ok.
We then see the group getting some drinks at the bar. The girl is wearing a plastic yellow bracelet, Sophie asks what it is. She says it’s “an all-inclusive thing,” allowing you to get whatever you want at the resort. It’s another reminder of the class difference between Calum and Sophie and everyone else.
Calum has gone back to the hotel room and is doing some tai chi. Sophie and the others are playing pool. A teen couple walks up nearby and starts making out in front of everyone. Now back to Calum, apparently the tai chi wasn’t enough to grant him inner peace, he’s now back at the rug store buying the item he passed on when Sophie was with him. Impulse control is apparently an issue for him.
Sophie is enjoying her time with the older kids. She participates in pushing the kissing couple into the pool, then they all jump in after them. Sophie witnesses lots of physical touch between the teen boys and girls as she swims underwater.
Then Sophie goes back to the hotel room, dries off her clothes by hanging them on the balcony and there notices a pack of matches that she tosses into the trash. She then starts folding her dad’s clothes and picking up for him. She’s also put on a sundress that makes her look a little older than her age.
The scene closes with Sophie going into her backpack and pulling out a little pink plastic silhouette of a woman, which she twirls around her fingers.
And, we are already halfway through the movie.