The Institute (協会)

LMS is scarily real at times . . . there were definitely times when I felt as if they'd used my family to come up with the characters (the sibling who goes on a talking strike, the mom who tries to "fix" everything, the dad who tells the daughter that she'll be fat if she eats ice cream - yeah, that's my family).

One word of warning - it may be a little weird to watch this movie with people who come from functional families - they tend to find it hilarious because they can't imagine a lot of the stuff happening. Though I think it did help my roommates to be a little bit more understanding of me when I told them "uh - yeah - that's basically my family".

-JH

Anyone who says they came from a "functional" family is deceiving themselves - but I know what you mean. There are so many great things about this movie, but my fave is the resolution - let's just stop trying to be the model family and love and enjoy one another.

BTW, Anthony, the soundtrack is indeed great, but they beat me to using Sufjan's "Chicago" in a movie first, and for that I'm jealous.

Wow, Jess, I hear ya! Your story is unfortunately too common. Sometimes I can't be around the "functional" people too long when engaging movies like this. They can be depressing.

John, I know LOTS of people then who are deceived. Many of them are Reformed Christians. You start talking about woundedness issues originating in the family and many will look at you like you're crazy or speaking Russian. For example, because every father is a son of Adam and sinful, every male alive carries a wound (or a series of wounds from his father). It's impossible not to in a fallen world but I know SEVERAL men who literally deny that they have any and don't ever talk about them. It's really odd.

You are so right about the "resolution." The church needs more of message like that I imagine. I'm sure the divorce rate in evangelical churches would go down.

I'm definitely gettin' the soundtrack!!

Anthony, Remember when Pat and I were trying to get you to watch that movie for the last year? I'm glad you finally saw it.

I liked the movie, but honestly, didn't find it profound. I guess I just found it a bit unrealistic. Sure there are dysfunctional families, but who really is going to take a vow of silence because of Nietzsche (and then go on to demonstrate some very un-Nietzsche like qualities)?

I guess I'd agree that it does represent some actual dysfunctional families. But the girl, the boy, & the grandfather seemed a bit too much. It kind of seems like it suffered a bit from the Sundance Syndrome.

Awesome movie. One of my top favorites, for sure. The scene you pictured is simply stunning. It is the pivot point for the movie and has much to say to people who seek change in their own lives as well as the lives of others.

One of the best!

Thanks.