We often regard our dreams as personal goals and fail to realize that people around us weave their dreams too around ours. Consequently, when one person’s dream fails or postpones, it razes several other dreams as well. Lorelei is a tale of a self-centered man who comes out of prison to live the second chance of his life. Until now, the prison has crushed his soul, and he has given up whatever dreams he had, but not the people around him. The film emotionally follows the dreams of that someone.
Lorelei marks the debut of director Sabrina Doyle who has written the film as well. Cinematographer Stephen Paar captures a beautifully crafted story. The film is set in a dead town, Colton, and portrays a small community of bikers. Wayland (Pablo Schreiber) was a part of the club and wanted to move out to L.A. until his dreams were shunned and imprisoned. The film begins as he comes out of prison after 15 years.
‘Lorelei’ Plot Summary
A gang of bikers receives Wayland from the prison. The warm stance suggests that once he was part of the club. Through an enthralling ride, the bikers drop Wayland to the Parish Hall. The Lutheran church becomes Wayland’s new home until he is on parole. Pastor Gail shows him around, and from the following day, Wayland starts working in the church itself until he finds another substantial employment.
Pastor Gail runs a welfare program for married women at the church. At the event, Wayland meets his high school girlfriend, Dolores, who never married but has given birth to three adorable children. Wayland and Dolores soon embark and catch the missing spark. She invites Wayland home, where he meets Dolores’s kids, a fifteen-year-old Dodger, a 12-year-old Periwinkle, and the smallest of the lot, Denim. Dolores named all her kids after the shades of blue.
Wayland soon gets accustomed to Dolores and the kids and even scores a job at a nearby scrapyard. He decides to move in with Dolores, a decision that will soon become a center of conflict for the couple and their kids.
‘Lorelei’ Ending Explained
The dictionary meaning of the word “‘Lorelei” refers to a siren of Germanic legend whose singing lures a boatman to destruction on a reef. In the film, Wayland was the boatsman, and Dolores was the alluring temptress. From the beginning of the film, Dolores conveyed her dreams. In her dreams, she constantly imagined going to the ocean. She wanted to touch it, but an invisible wall blocked her way. Dreams are symbolic metaphors and could have a plethora of meanings. In my opinion, Dolores wanted to move to ocean city, L.A. It was a mutual dream of Wayland and Dolores in their rebel years before Wayland was arrested in an Armed Robbery case at a Video Joint Lottery.
Dolores was a gifted swimmer, and her alluring talent could be witnessed in the film itself. However, she didn’t make it to the nationals because of her pregnancy when she was pregnant with Dodger 15 years ago. Later, she couldn’t leave the kid, and her life’s wrong decision to settle down ended up in a mess. Dolores buried her dreams until Wayland came back from prison. It was the spark she was waiting for.
Wayland became friendly with the kids, and when Dolores was confident that he would take care of them in her absence, she quickly left for L.A. In the meantime, Wayland lost his job but still managed to nurse the kids by doing illicit deliveries for the club. Finally, his longtime friend, Beckett, gave him the money from the armed robbery to start his own business. Dolores not only left the kids with Wayland, but she also imparted her dreams of the ocean on him. After a week, Dolores called and informed Wayland that she wasn’t returning and had taken a job at a dive bar in L.A.
Wayland got pissed, but he also understood Dolores’s urge and the pursuit of her dreams. By now, Wayland had no such ambition left in his system, and thus, the best he could have done was to let a loved one live the life she wanted. Wayland started looking after the kids as his own while Dolores lived her dreams.
In the end, Wayland took the kids to L.A. to meet their mother. But on their way, Wayland had a dream in which Dolores swimming underwater transformed into a canine monster for a brief second. He suspected whether Dolores loved him or just tempted him like the folklore attached to the film’s title. Outside the dive bar in L.A, Wayland’s doubts clouded his rationality, and he refused to walk inside with the kids. He disclosed that they weren’t his blood, and sooner or later, either they would, or he would walk off from their life.
In this conflicted moment, Dodger revealed the most riveting revelation. He hurt himself and made Wayland realize that blood doesn’t matter at all. It’s just a liquid and Wayland made it an excuse to run away from responsibilities, relationships, and commitment. Understanding his mistake, Wayland walked inside the dive bar with the kids, where they witnessed and cherished their mother’s divine act.
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.”
Richard Bach
Conclusion
Sabrina Doyle’s debut film Lorelei is filled with metaphors and symbolism. The integrations make the film an exciting and worthwhile watch.
My favorite scene describes Dolores’ affection for Wayland, where she reveals that she still has the tattoo with Wayland’s name. Later in the film, when Wayland meets another girl at a club party, gets intimately involved with her, and observes a tattoo on her body, he quickly leaves the spot. The subtle suggestion and comparison underline Wayland’s love and devotion towards Dolores, which he never directly hinted at or accepted.
The film is filled with such stances, and it would become boring and descriptive to explore each of them.
Lorelei is a 2021 Romantic Drama film written and directed by Sabrina Doyle in her feature debut.
