I was wondering why they would have the child disappear and no one could ever find him. Did that seem weird to anyone else? I was hoping that maybe he was alive somewhere and would turn up late in the movie, but it doesn't make sense the way it played out, does it?
shareI think they mentioned that they suspected a predator (coyote?) dragged the child off.
**********RogueStout
It makes sense to me. These are very tortured people and anyone who has had someone disappear can never get closure. This was just one more nasty little fact of their lives.
shareIf you've ever lived in the Ozarks you'd know that there are boars, foxes, and MANY coyotes out there. It's very easy to believe the story line that the child was dragged off by a wild animal and eaten.
share
yes, that was a tad annoying to me, too
it wasn't implied that joe or chrystal imagined that the child was standing after the accident, alright -- WE got to see him
Didn't anyone think of looking under the truck? Why was it never moved? Especially if a body was "missing".
shareDidn't anyone think of looking under the truck? Why was it never moved? Especially if a body was "missing".
shareFolks, we are taking the appearance or lack thereof way to literally. That child was a metaphor for the entire movie. It is a mystery, seemingly simple on the surface yet more complex - much like the steel sculpture that adults couldn't figure out, yet the child immediately sees the purpose at the end.
shareYou took the words right out of my mouth! That's why I think this movie could be considered a "southern Gothic" tale. People always want to look for the overt meaning of a movie-solve the mystery, the guy gets the girl, family reunited, blah blah blah. This film does force the viewer to look beyond the obvious instead of spoon feeding a mass produced Hollywood story. I thought it was brilliant.
Exactly. Sometimes people look too much for answers in the story, and they miss the entire point of it instead. They think too much.
Mommy to two little monsters
I didn't overthink it. During the crash scene, I interpreted it as the son seeing his mother alive but dying, and left her because he couldn't take watching. Then at first I was confused about who the woman was, because I thought the mother had died. Once I saw that it was her, I wondered whether the son was going to pop up in the movie. The driver of the blind man at first seemed like it might be the son. You can put me down as a movie viewer, but that opening scene mislead me for most of the movie.
... I realized why this occurred; I watch lots of mainstream movies and they usually do some kind of twist where some character pops up later, etc. so I was primed to take this scene literally and be expecting a dramatic reunion. This movie is mostly about characters and their development, not plot and events. That's why for example I kept waiting for the blind man and his driver to have some kind of critical interaction with Joe and Chrystal, something that drives the plot. But they are part of character building, a dispursed process throughout the movie.
They never found his body .. which I admit is kind of a strange thing. I mean he could have died in the forest .. and I suppose animals could have eaten him .. One thing not explained in the film ... He could be still alive? Not sure where the writer was going with that.
Kelly: I'm under Evelyn Waugh.
Charlotte: Evelyn Waugh was a man.