Around the Bend

wip.warnerbros.com/aroundthebend

How does a family survive death? How does a family invoke rituals to meaningfully connect with future generations? How do we learn to forgive those that hurt us most, especially when those people are suppose to be our caretakers? How do we find those to which we belong -- our "tribe" in a world of heartbreak and brokenness.

These are the central themes of "Around the Bend", a movie starring Michael Caine, Christopher Walken, Josh Lucas as the Lair family.

I loved how the director of this movie is able to weave these themes around the family while keeping the tension between comedy and drama taunt and sparkling.

There are not many guidelines for those of us in Western culture on how to pass from one generation to the next. We suffer from a lack of rituals and connectedness that other cultures have seemed far better able to execute.

While there are not specific ideas given, the movie does provide some key ideas on how generations might connect and provide meaning to those circles of generations that encircle one another.

I love movies such as this that are rich in character development, provide a visual feast of "clues" to the movies themes along with a first rate class of actors. Seeing the movie on DVD also provides insight to the director's approach to his movie and the making of the movie itself.