It is rare that I weep during a movie. Cry, yea, but boohoo is not very common. My top boohoo movies have typically been Shadowlands, The Hiding Place and A Beautiful Life. But I have definitely added Lars and the Real Girl to the boohoo list.
What constitutes a boohoo list versus a cry list you ask. Crying is usually provoked through sentiment and tender touches to my heart and my emotions, being able to relate or have compassion for the characters and a given situation.
Boohoo movies move and convict. They make me want to change something deep inside me. After watching Shadowlands I wanted to become Debra Winger and have the powerful ability to bring a heart and mind like CS Lewis' to its knees with my unrelenting realist words and absence of fear in what people think.
In the Hiding place I am always moved by Betsie's words as she lies very sick in a concentration camp to a disillusioned fellow prisoner, "There is no hole so deep that His love is not deeper still." Yea, I always boohoo in that scene for obvious reasons.
When the knitting church ladies decide to bring in casseroles and sit with Lars while Bianca( a stuffed life-size doll) was in the hospital my mere tears turned into wails. His delusion journey lived out so many people's fantasies to be able to receive radical community and extremely unconditional love. To see a person's pain be so accepted and given so much care and attention teaches me love and acceptance for myself and especially for others. So many times we confuse that kind of care, love, and attention with the dysfunction enabling that is so common. That is the part I loved the most. No enabling, just lovingly putting the delusion back in his hands with empowerment to keep the delusion or lose it. And acceptance and love dwelled richly in his life until he, like the cripple at the healing pool outside the city gate in Luke 5, decided to pick up his mat and walk. All their love and acceptance through his pain were like Jesus when he asked the cripple, "Do you want to get well?" The cripple took the tough love challenge and picked up his mat and walked away. Lars came to a point where he realized he didn't need to be crippled any more. He somehow was able to recognize the sacredness of his journey and decided to baptize Bianca and give her a proper funeral. After that he went for a fresh new kind of walk as well.
What constitutes a boohoo list versus a cry list you ask. Crying is usually provoked through sentiment and tender touches to my heart and my emotions, being able to relate or have compassion for the characters and a given situation.
Boohoo movies move and convict. They make me want to change something deep inside me. After watching Shadowlands I wanted to become Debra Winger and have the powerful ability to bring a heart and mind like CS Lewis' to its knees with my unrelenting realist words and absence of fear in what people think.
In the Hiding place I am always moved by Betsie's words as she lies very sick in a concentration camp to a disillusioned fellow prisoner, "There is no hole so deep that His love is not deeper still." Yea, I always boohoo in that scene for obvious reasons.
When the knitting church ladies decide to bring in casseroles and sit with Lars while Bianca( a stuffed life-size doll) was in the hospital my mere tears turned into wails. His delusion journey lived out so many people's fantasies to be able to receive radical community and extremely unconditional love. To see a person's pain be so accepted and given so much care and attention teaches me love and acceptance for myself and especially for others. So many times we confuse that kind of care, love, and attention with the dysfunction enabling that is so common. That is the part I loved the most. No enabling, just lovingly putting the delusion back in his hands with empowerment to keep the delusion or lose it. And acceptance and love dwelled richly in his life until he, like the cripple at the healing pool outside the city gate in Luke 5, decided to pick up his mat and walk. All their love and acceptance through his pain were like Jesus when he asked the cripple, "Do you want to get well?" The cripple took the tough love challenge and picked up his mat and walked away. Lars came to a point where he realized he didn't need to be crippled any more. He somehow was able to recognize the sacredness of his journey and decided to baptize Bianca and give her a proper funeral. After that he went for a fresh new kind of walk as well.
Boo hoo. If you have not seen any of the mentioned movies, take a look sometime when you need a fresh perspective on life, love, and God. And for those of you who know me well I am still pursuing God at the movies. I definitely found His kind of community in the little town where Lars lived and worshipped.
2 comments:
rox it is such a great movie. the best kind of comedy is always matched with some pain. for me there isn't a difference between weeping and crying, because that's really uncommon. for me, it's did i cry or want to cry at all. this movie is on that list for sure. you really feel the longing in lars and his need for love.
and of course the other movies you mentioned are great too!
Thanks Katelynn, my dear sweet friend, for seeing Lars in this way! I knew we were kindred spirit!
Post a Comment