Sentimental Value

This struck me so deeply. I feel like I’ve truly seen the colors red and green for the first time. Tears would just start streaming down my face any time Skarsgard and Renate were on screen together.  Ok the thing about the colors might be a bit hyperbolic but this one is for the eldest daughters with fraught relationships with their dads. We all have our issues ranging from anxiety to depression to lower case t traumas and capital T traumas. A lot of times we feel alone in those feelings but many of them may stem from the Traumas of our parents that they refuse to confront and we know very little or next to nothing about. We cannot out run or out therapize the self reflection our parents needed. We can give them some grace and say they did not have the tools we have now and in doing so brush things under the rug and say it’s fine. but when Christmas or Easter or a birthday or a funeral come around and we have to spend that uncomfortable time with our family things will inevitably bubble to the surface. We can continue the pattern of miscommunication and anger or we can choose to confront these emotions and the deeply sad past that informs why our parents are the way they are. This movie to me is about when we finally choose to have these truly open convos we can break open a whole new relationship and love and connection.  Do not wait until it is too late to have these conversations with your family. I get everyone has different family dynamics but if yours is not too far gone or when you have kids and feel differently talk to them.