MovieChat Forums > Opal Dream (2006) Discussion > Manipulative child

Manipulative child

posted 16 years ago by allison-75
8 replies | jump to latest

Opal Dream: manipulative child discovers powerful way to control family and community members. True, imaginary friends could indicate a psychiatric problem (or just a healthy, vivid imagination), but the movie makers don't show any signs of pathology other than Kellyanne's strong-willed desire to control events and people through her insistence that her friends are real. Due to her single-minded focus, she is able to make her father drive to a mine site in the middle of the night, make her brother return to the mine site and endanger himself climbing down a shaft and then to pay for and hold a funeral, as well as to actually make herself sick.

[–] FearTheNumbers 16 years ago

Yeah.
I felt sorry for her at first but the bit when she made her brother go back there at night really did annoy me.
She was all, "Please, before I go to hospital..."
He could have died down there.

[–] annabithiah 16 years ago

I have to say I disagree with you.

She was only a child, who obviously believed in something very strongly. I think her father driving to the mine was actually showing how much he loved her, I mean he could have beaten her and said no!

I think you are being a bit skeptical!

[–] FearTheNumbers 16 years ago

I have no problem with the father driving her there. I would have done the same thing.

But the fact remains that there is a very big difference between reality and imagination. Even a child who wants their imaginary friend to truly exist, deep down knows they are just fictional.

And the problem I have is that she endangers the life of her brother.

[–] helpcomefindme 16 years ago

Children that age are not able to view things like an adult. And adults who think they do are simply fools. My child does not fully understand the end result of many things because she is still new and has to live and go through more before she really gets it, even though she thinks she knows it all.

[–] FreedomRider 16 years ago

I don't think she made herself sick. And she is not manipulative on purpose. She believes in her imaginary friends! It's the adults who fail her, I believe. She needed help and they indulged her. The brother is torn but he's only 11-12. He does the best he can. It's a strange movie but I liked it.

[–] iainduff82 15 years ago

Your cynicism is staggering

[–] PinkAnderson 13 years ago

The OP is very jaded here. She believed they were real. And I doubt that she realised the danger she put her brother in.

[–] timlin-4 10 years ago

Eh, people are only as manipulative as you let them be. Most girls are like this their whole lives, which is why you can't take them seriously. The dad was a real chump, and the boy will be a loser all his life too, along with the rest of those dimwitted rock hunters