Stop obsessing with the kid! Nothing happened to him!

People, please stop obsessing with the kid. Nothing happened to him - he got therapy and grew up to be a successful Hollywood screenwriter.

An empty room in the movie is nothing but a metaphor, an allegory – a way of expressing artist’s ideas in an indirect manner that is often obscure to an outsider. Some part of the parents’ mind and consciousness cleared (just like the room) when they opened up to the “inconvenient” truth – their kid is a bad person, and their ability to change him is limited. They do what they can, they will continue doing what they can, but his life is his, and their life is theirs, and sometimes you have to live with what you can’t control. This idea is taken to a bit of an extreme in the movie, but isn’t it true that our kids are not like us, and they grow up to be different from us, no matter how much we wish otherwise?

The movie is shot in a realistic manner, but is full of metaphors. You don’t have to walk through three states to realize that you are lost. You don’t have to attempt to throw your husband off the balcony to realize that he is the one you have to live the rest of your days with, and not some geriatric Prince Charming. Marc Chagall did not see flying cows. And, oh, by the way, Forrest Gump did not inspire John Lennon to write “Imagine” - sorry about a spoiler…

The whole movie is about people facing reality, uncovering some kind of truth about them, and (“the truth will set you free”) possibly living a little better lives as the result. Authors urge us to do it now, as life is often short, fragile, and unnecessary cruel – which we are reminded about as the movie ends on the anniversary of 9/11. (Here is your tie-in to 9/11, again, a metaphor, and the fact that it is mentioned does not really mean that all characters are suffering from WTC induced post-traumatic disorder).

This is one of the rare movies which make you think, so please do.