I love that you highlight how the film flips the usual hierarchy, with Ren often occupying the moral and visual high ground while the adults flail. That inversion feels truer to many kids’ lived experiences of separation than the tidy lessons we’re used to in “coming-of-age” stories. The emphasis on motion the running, chasing, drifting captures that restless instability divorce creates for children in a way dialogue never could. And that final surreal sequence sounds less like a neat resolution and more like an internal reckoning, which feels far more honest. Now I’m adding this to my watch list.
Thanks Nicole, I hadn’t really made the connection between the “motion” of the film and the instability of divorce for a child, but your comment articulates it perfectly!
I love that you highlight how the film flips the usual hierarchy, with Ren often occupying the moral and visual high ground while the adults flail. That inversion feels truer to many kids’ lived experiences of separation than the tidy lessons we’re used to in “coming-of-age” stories. The emphasis on motion the running, chasing, drifting captures that restless instability divorce creates for children in a way dialogue never could. And that final surreal sequence sounds less like a neat resolution and more like an internal reckoning, which feels far more honest. Now I’m adding this to my watch list.
Thanks Nicole, I hadn’t really made the connection between the “motion” of the film and the instability of divorce for a child, but your comment articulates it perfectly!
I like the comparison with spirited away.