A Life In Death

A boy suffering from depression (Frank Moretti) dies before his time making sense of an item with cannot be seen at the start of the movie.
As Frank has an untimely death he wakes up in a place where it is snowing, this place later explained as his mother (Nancy Moretti)’s favourite place in Germany, the country in which she was fostered; in this place Frank is given the opportunity to return to any decade of his choice, however this chance would come with a price leaving his destiny to be decided at a later date; although he is ‘seemingly’ unable to age.
Before his story unravels we are hold that Frank has no related family only a deceased grandfather and family that has never been spoken about, Frank also has a childhood sweetheart who has grown disheartened under his current mental state.

Upon the information that his granddad died in the war, Frank decides to return to 1938 in order to save his grandfather from his death in the hope the explanation he is given of his family will allow him a deeper understanding of his families woes, his mothers infidelity that has driven him to depression, herself to living as a recluse and his father to drink.
Frank returns to 1938 and lies about his age as he is only a 16 year old boy to enlist in the army; for the first few years he has no luck in tracing down his family but continues his duty in this hope yet is captured by the German fleet, a rescue effort is made by a team led by Ernest King, Frank’s grandfather who also becomes a prisoner of war after the failure of this mission; within this time both strike up a friendship and Ernest is surprised to find out how much Frank knows and slowly comes round to the idea they are related.
Upon this revelation Ernest reveals that he has somebody waiting for him when the he comes out of the army, Nancy, Nancy Moretti an American nurse of whom he met when she treated his brother who sadly passed away within an Army hospital. Ernest reveals he had got Nancy pregnant, out of wedlock and that she had quit the hospital and both planned to elope when Ernest was next home from the warfare so he could ‘make an honest woman of her’, he however gets shot protecting Frank from enemy fire but makes his grandson promise to find his love for him, after this happens Frank has aged and struggles to remember certain things he has experienced.
Frank vows to continue fighting until the wars end in 1945 in memory of his fallen grandfather.

Frank however cannot find his grandmother until the start of the 50s in a chance meeting in a hotel in America due to snow causing a blizzard leading him to seek shelter in a hotel, one where Nancy is working, Frank being in America searching for Nancy’s family after no other leads.
Frank tells Nancy all about Ernest and the child she has of whom he meets but after he does this, realises he is looking older and is struggling to remember some of the things he and Ernest had spoken about.
Nancy tells Frank that she had become anti-war since being informed of Ernest’s death and how she supports President James Turner’s approval of appeasement, before Frank thinks about his memory loss he remembers the assassination of Turner in 1954 and thus informs his grandmother of his event.
Nancy tells of how she has to return to work in order not to create any suspicions, but she arranges to meet Frank in December and entrusts him with a necklace, a family air loom; upon the snowy day in December Nancy sees the police and runs away, she then however goes on to foil the attempted murder of President James Turner and they marry although in order for his reign to continue suffers the heartbreaking decision to give up her child.

In the 1960s Frank lives through the hippie lifestyle and tells stories to those he meets which ages him and leads him to struggle in retaining basic information about himself which leads to a brief stint in prison as he does not comply with the police and leads in the 70s which pass by as a reckless Frank dabbles in all vices.
At the start of the 80s Franks sees a small girl lose her mother and decides to look for his own, he witnesses many major events throughout the 80s until he sees his mother on television at the fall of the Berlin Wall, as he finds her he discovers how his mother was fostered to a German family split by the wall and tells her all about her family giving her the necklace from her birth mother, this leads to a substantial aging of him and a lot of memory loss.
His father then comes into the fray when he sees Nancy’s military necklace, the air loom given by Frank although the couple struggle to have children and Frank sees his as his fault.

Frank then starts to write memoirs to explain in journey in order to dedicate to his family as the aging process takes its toll on him, he then reaches the day the died and he is old and losing his mind; he tells his childhood sweetheart to read what he as written in order to explain what is happening, Frank feels as if he is going; she does not understand and cannot cope.

Frank then feels unwell and his life is flashed through his mind as he returns to the present day; he then receives an urgent phone call from his mother telling him to return home, the date is the 25th of December.
As he is walking through the street and the snow is falling a note falls from the sky telling him ‘Today life is lived’ the same note he received in his first passing, whilst reading this he is struck by a car and is left lying in the street clutching the necklace in his hand.
The news his mother was to tell him was that she had fallen pregnant.