Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park (1993) 

Rated PG-13 (for intense science fiction terror)

Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Sir Richard Attenborough, Jeff Goldblum, Samuel L. Jackson

Have you ever heard the expression, “we plan… God laughs?”  It’s a quick way to remind ourselves (usually in the middle of a plan disintegrating) that we are not really in charge of any of this.  It’s not so much a problem of not having all of the bases covered.  It’s that however many bases we think we have covered, there always seem to be bases we’ve forgotten. 

Quick synopsis

A wealthy wildlife enthusiast has combined new technologies to create the world’s first cloned dinosaurs.  He enlists the help of three scientists, his investors’ lawyer and his two grandchildren to tour his island theme park before it opens.  His plan is that they should enjoy and be awestruck by the park’s exhibits, sign off on it, “maybe even pen a wee testimonial,” allowing him to open the park to the public as planned.  Unfortunately, the combination of a traitorous employee planning a heist and a tropical storm crossing over the mainland destroys the security of the park and leaves everyone fending for their lives against the hunting dinosaurs. 

(Spoilers Follow)

Dr. Ian Malcolm: God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.Dr. Ellie Sattler: Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.

This movie is full of people with great plans.  The first sequence of the movie includes a carefully orchestrated transfer of a very noisy (one must assume toothy) creature from a transport cage into another dwelling.  There is a voice of authority commanding the small army of men who are handling the transfer.   Whatever is in the box is smarter than its human handlers, though, and the plan goes awry.  Immediately, we are introduced to the idea that the best-laid plans can fall apart at any time.

That theme never really leaves us, throughout the movie.  John Hammond, the millionaire dreamer behind the Park, planned to wow and impress Paleontologist Dr. Grant and Paleobotanist Dr. Sattler.  His plan begins to fall apart in the helicopter, when Alan Grant can’t attach his seatbelt.  From there, the tour seems to improve, but at every step, his plans are disrupted by the actions of the three scientists.  Even as Mathematician Dr. Ian Malcom is spouting philosophy about the beauty of the inherent chaos of nature, the scientists refuse to sit back and allow Mr. Hammond’s plans to unfold.

Dinosaurs and man, two species separated by 65 million years of evolution have just been suddenly thrown back into the mix together. How can we possibly have the slightest idea what to expect?

Everyone else on Jurassic Park is making plans as well.   The tech guy, Dennis Nedry, has a complicated heist planned that he has timed down to the minute (nearly).   The lab scientist. Henry, has a plan to  keep the dinosaurs under control through the complicated breeding plan of not letting any of them be male.  The children have a constant plan in motion to put themselves in the attention of Dr. Grant. 

Plans are hatching like impossible Velociraptor eggs all over the Park.  

Outside forces begin to conspire to disrupt and destroy these plans.  It begins with a tropical storm moving over the island, which calls for an evacuation.  Then Dennis Nedry’s heist shuts off important security features all over the Park.  Free at last from fences and paddocks, dinosaurs begin to roam the countryside while Dr. Grant and the children flee for their lives. 

I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way.

Ruminating to Dr. Sattler, safe inside the compound, Mr. Hammond tries to pinpoint the moment where he lost control of the situation.  He believes he can see it, but Dr. Sattler shoots him down. 

John Hammond: When we have control again...Dr. Ellie Sattler: You never had control, that's the illusion!

When we make plans, we tend to work backwards from ideas.  We have an idea, we fall in love with the idea, and then we try to make the idea happen.  First, we find a path from where we are to where the idea has become reality.  Then, we try to account for variables along the way. 

Even in the simplest system, we are not very good at that.   I have an idea that I may want fried chicken for dinner, for example.  To make that come to pass, I plan a series of events that lead to the capture and retrieval of fried chicken, taking into account variables that I can remember (where the fried chicken place is, where my car keys are, how to get from here to there and back, etc.) I do not, however, account for variables such as the wreck on the road between me and the fried chicken place or the grease fire that erupted in the fried chicken place’s kitchen.  Usually, when we launch even a simple plan, we have a great big scribbled mental note over the plan that reads:  “Adjust as necessary.”

John Hammond: Creation is an act of sheer will. Next time it'll be flawless.

Mr. Hammond, of course, was playing with much bigger plans, as were many of the other planmakers at Jurassic Park.  It is one thing to “adjust as necessary,” when a plan is small.  But the scientist who created the dinosaurs by combining technologies and taking shortcuts could not possibly have been aware of all of the variables.  Not enough knowledge about genetics exists to adequately predict anything about that process.  Naturally, he was as surprised as anyone to find out that the dinosaurs that he had engineered to be female were spontaneously becoming male in order to breed in the wild. 

Mr. Hammond’s vision was much bigger than that.  His included all of the moving parts of everyone else’s plans.  He tried to cover all of those bases.  He was constantly stating that he had “spared no expense.”  But of course, he had been very stingy in one area: reflection. 

You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you wanna sell it. Well... 

I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before...

 Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.

It’s easy to sit back and watch this movie and tut at John Hammond and all of his lofty plans.  We can shake our heads and say, “How could you have been so foolish? Silly man.”  But the truth is that we do this every day.  All day.  Some of our plans are simple.  (See above re: fried chicken.)  But many of our plans stretch out into the latest parts of our lives. 

We see the opportunity for a new job, and we don’t just imagine accepting the job.  We imagine being able to count on that job for as long as we need it.  Some of us even become engrossed in telling the future story of ourselves in that job.  We imagine accomplishing things, being recognized, being beloved for our valued work. 

The biggest area that we probably make this mistake is with our children.  We find out that a child is on the way, and we begin to make plans.  We imagine that child growing up, becoming who we imagine them to be.  We are startled when a personality emerges that is not the one we expect. 

The bad news is that we cannot possibly plan for all of the variables, because we don’t know them all, and we never will. The worse news is that even knowing that, we will continue to make plans.  Sometimes the “Adjust as needed,” just isn’t enough of an instruction to undo the panic and heartbreak that we suffer as a result. 

Dr. Ian Malcolm would have us believe that the universe is simply chaos, and that is why our plans do not go the way we expect them to. 

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,  but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Proverbs 19:21

The good news is that God knows all the variables.  There are some who believes that He not only knows all the variables, but that He has carefully placed each one to achieve a certain outcome.  This is predestination. 

Others believe that since He knows all the variables, but has given us free will, that whatever direction we stray, whatever we break or destroy, He will have everything He needs to put His plan for us back together, and will do so constantly.  This is prevenience.   

Whichever way our beliefs lie, the truth is that God has created every particle of this universe and knows all of it.  He knows each of us, not just who we are, but what we’re made of, body and soul.  Our will moves us through this world, but His grace continuously directs and inspires us through His plan. 

 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord…” Jeremiah 29:11

So as our plans descend into what we perceive to be chaos, the adjustment we need to make is to hand our plans to Him.  

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Stars: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage

Rated PG 13 (for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images)

The second installment in The Hobbit trilogy, the Desolation of Smaug takes the story of The Hobbit from the first serious direction change to the edge of the big drop. 

 (You can find my review of An Unexpected Journey in this blog as well.)

Gandalf: You've changed, Bilbo Baggins. You're not the same Hobbit as the one who left the Shire...

A brief synopsis:

  At the end of An Unexpected Journey, we left Bilbo with the dwarf company gazing at The Lonely Mountain with great hope and anticipation.  Unbeknownst to the company, Smaug is stirring in the mountain, like a giant premonition.  We begin this movie with a flashback conversation between Gandalf and Thorin, wherein Gandalf convinces Thorin to begin his quest.  We jump from that conversation to the journey of the dwarves (and Bilbo).  From that point on, the dwarves step from one perilous, confusing, dangerous stretch of their journey to another.   (Bilbo comes, too.)  By the time they arrive at their destination, the entire company has been completely redefined.  They find that their task is not only much more difficult than they anticipated, but that it carries with it consequences they were not ready to face.

Spoilers follow

This installment begins with a mistaken identity. 

Gandalf: I ran into some unsavory characters whilst traveling along the Greenway. They mistook me for a vagabond.

Immediately after the flashback of Thorin’s conversation with Gandalf, the dwarves are running from a creature that looks like a giant bear, only to find out that he is an acquaintance of Gandalf’s, a shapechanger named Beorn.  From that moment forward, every step of the dwarves’ journey to the Lonely Mountain, and Gandalf’s journey to discover the truth of what is happening in Dol Guldor is shrouded in confusion and mistake and misunderstanding. 

Beorn helps the dwarf company to reach the entrance to Mirkwood Forest.  Gandalf takes one more look at Bilbo before sending him into the forest an remarks that something has changed.  Bilbo knows that he is carrying a strange burden, a ring that gives him invisibility, but also carries a germ of deceptiveness into his spirit.  He cannot bring himself to tell Gandalf this. 

In truth, no one in the story is what they seem.  Nothing happens the way it is expected.  No perception can be trusted.  No vision is completely clear. 

Each character that the dwarves meet has a secondary story that forces us to adjust our perception. 

The beautiful, flawless face of Thranduil, the Elven King, hides terrible dragon-fire scars that give power to his uncooperative attitude. 

Thranduil: Do not speak to ME of dragon fire! I know its wrath and ruin! I have faced the great serpents of the north!...

The cold, calculating Elven captain of the guard, Tauriel, reveals a warm heart, moved to compassion by Kili’s bravery and impending death. 

Kili: You cannot be her. She is far away. She is far, far away from me. She walks in starlight in another world. It's just a dream. Do you think she could have loved me?

Legolas, who stands with pride and arrogance, is put in his place by a “lowly sylvan elf”

Legolas: It is not our fight.

Tauriel: It is our fight. It will not end here. With every victory this evil will grow. If your father has his way, we will do nothing. We will hide within our walls, live our lives away from the light and let darkness descend. Are we are not part of this world? Tell me, Mellon, when did we let evil become stronger than us?

Bard is a character that inspires suspicion in the dwarves, but on whom they must rely.

Dwalin: I don't care what he calls himself, I don't like him.

He reveals himself to be the hero of his people, stepping forward in an unpopular way to protect his people from the worst harm imaginable.

Bard: Dragonfire and ruin! That is what he will bring upon us! He cannot see beyond his own desire!

Even Smaug is not as Bilbo expected.  He is a creature of insatiable vanity, toying with Bilbo until he is motivated to kill him.  But his vanity reveals a surprising insecurity in the face of his own self-proclaimed invincibility.

Bilbo Baggins: I did not come to steal from you, O Smaug the Unassessably Wealthy. I merely wanted to gaze upon your magnificence, to see if you were as great as the old tales say. I did not believe them.

Smaug: And do you, NOW?

Bilbo Baggins: Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous...

As we follow the story from place to place, the locations are deceptive as well. As the dwarves enter Mirkwood Forest, they become lost an confused, paranoid and argumentative.Bilbo realizes that they have been moving in circles, and that the forest in which they travel is sick. 

Bilbo: “The sun…  we have to find the sun.”

He reaches toward heaven for clarity. 

He climbs a tall tree so that he can reach the sun and the fresh air. He’s able to see danger coming in the form of giant spiders, and has the clarity of mind to help free his friends from that danger, only to watch them fall into another.

The expansive kingdom of the elves is revealed to be a place of dark isolation.

Thranduil: Other lands are not my concern. The fortunes of the world will rise and fall, but here in this kingdom, we will endure.

The broken city of Laketown holds a history of rich commerce and trade, smothered to death by an incompetent leader. Dol Guldor, an abandoned empty fortress, turns out to be teeming with a thriving orc army, hidden by dark magic.  Even the doorway to Erebor behaves differently than the dwarves expected.

  

It’s the problem of prophecy

Bard the Bowman:

The Lord of Silver Fountains, The King of Carven Stone

The King Beneath the Mountain shall come into his own.

And the bells shall ring in gladness at the Mountain King's return.

But all shall fail in sadness, and the Lake will shine and burn...

The problem with prophecy is that it is made of words.  Words are flawed.  Words are incomplete.  When words are unclear, you have to use more words to explain them. 

The problem with people is that we observe them with our earthly senses.  Our senses are flawed.  Our senses are incomplete.  When our senses are unclear, we have to use words to explain them. 

The dwarves on their quest to reclaim their homeland and their heritage are in possession of a few key pieces of information:  They know a little about their past, a little about their destination, a little about each other.  They believe they know a lot more than they do, and are constantly being thrown off by what they see and understand. 

“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.”  1 Corinthians 13:12

          This sketchy understanding of things is the playground of evil.  In certainty, we make ourselves willing victims of deception. 

Thranduil: Such is the nature of evil, in time all foul things come forth!

          Evil sees us in this place of false solidity and safety and is overjoyed. Like Azog the Defiler appearing suddenly to Gandalf, it gleefully knocks us off our feet. 

Smaug: You have been used, Thief in the Shadows. You were only ever a means to an end. The coward Oakenshield has measured your life and found it to be worth nothing...

          So what do we do when we find our certainty shaken?  When we feel that all that we thought we understood is wrong?  Do we keep calling ourselves sure?  Right? Certain?  

Smaug: Impressive titles. What else do you claim to be?

Or do we admit that we are lost, confused, mistaken in someone we thought we knew, or mistaken in ourselves? 

In this world, we will never see a full picture of anything or anyone.  Our eyes only perceive a narrow part of the light spectrum.  Our ears only hear a tiny portion of all sound that is made.  Our souls can only contemplate so much as long as we are burdened by the physical limitations of our bodies. 

So how do we find our way?  If we can’t rely on anything that we know, how do we take one step after another and reach the destination that God has in mind for us?  

“He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you… your eyes shall see your Teacher.”  Isaiah 30:20

Perhaps we take a cue from Bilbo.  We need to reach for heaven, to lift ourselves above Mirkwood and breathe fresh air. 

And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”  Isaiah 30:21

As long as we live in this world, we will never see clearly.  But we live in the promise that in the end, we will understand.  Like the old hymn says “I will understand it better by and by.” 

And the same goes for those who fail to understand us fully.  We cannot explain ourselves with any completeness in words.  No correct picture can be formed of us by others.  But the time will come when we will be seen clearly.

 “Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12

          As this second story in a series of three comes to a breathless conclusion, Bilbo looks with horror on where his efforts have led.  He has awoken the dragon, he has doomed Laketown to a fiery vengeful death.  He asks the question that we will all probably ask at least once in our lost, stumbling lives… 

          Bilbo: What have we done?

 Check back for a review of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Stars: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage

Rated PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images

This is the first installment in a trilogy, and I imagine that each movie of the series will have its own arc and focus, with a huge over-arching message about self-sacrifice and heroism and such.  But the spiritual message to be found in this first installment is a very, very small one.

Gandalf: Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay...

A brief synopsis:

Gandalf has enlisted Bilbo Baggins, a Halfling, to serve as the thief on an expedition of dwarves (who are bigger than Hobbits, but not by much) as they attempt to reclaim the land and treasure that was stolen from them by Smaug the Dragon.  They don’t quite make it to their destination in this first installment, but they do manage to face a mind-blowing number of obstacles, nonetheless.

Bilbo Baggins is qualified, according to Gandalf, because Gandalf says so.  He has qualities that are unique to Hobbits and that are unique to him. 

“Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet, in fact, they can pass unseen by most if they choose. And while the dragon is accustom to the smell of Dwarf, the scent of a Hobbit is all but unknown to him which gives us a distinct advantage.”

But Bilbo feels, (and most of the dwarves, especially Thorin, agree) that he is hopelessly unfit for these kinds of adventures.

“He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door!”

Yet, through the course of many turns of events and acts of desperation and bravery, Bilbo becomes indispensable to the expedition.

              "No, it's fine.  I would have doubted me too."

Spoilers follow

Bilbo is dismissed by Thorin because he is small, weak, untested, and foolish, which, when you reflect on it, doesn’t really make any sense.  Thorin Oakenshield’s name is derived from a pivotal moment in battle when he himself was seriously overmatched and triumphed anyway.

“He stood alone against this terrible foe, his armour rent, wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield…”

It takes him some time (and experience) to remember that it is in the small things that great things happen, that hints of the awesome are found in the ordinary.  He does know it.  He betrays that knowledge when he is talking about the ragtag band of dwarves that he has hinged the future of his people on.

            “I would take each and every one of these dwarves over the mightiest army.”

But we, watching the movie, are never allowed to forget it.  From the first moments of the movie, our attention is brought to the pivotal nature of the small and insignificant. 

The Kingdom of the Dwarves rose into greatness and then fell into ruin because of a gem the size of a dwarf’s hand, beautiful and incredibly valuable but, when you come right down to it, a fairly small thing. 

Thorin’s defiance of the Pale Orc during the battle was the small thing that rallied the Dwarf troops for one last mighty push against their enemies.

Then, constantly throughout the movie we are reminded about the small things defeating much greater things.

            Bilbo Baggins: What are you saying? That my sword hasn't seen battle?

            Dwarf: Not sure it is a sword, to be honest. More of a... letter opener.

            Gandalf: These are Gundabad wargs. They will outrun you!

            Radagast: These are Rhosgobel rabbits. I'd like to see them try.

Right at the very end, during the last horrible battle of the orcs, when Gandalf and the dwarves are trapped hopelessly in a falling tree hanging over a cliff, cornered and tormented by orcs and wargs, Gandalf puts his hope and faith for salvation in the communication abilities of a small butterfly.

Eventually, this story is going to come to a confrontation between a monstrous world-dominating power and a tiny, exhausted Hobbit, and the object that will decide the match will be a single, insignificant band of gold.

Why small things?   Why is it so important to place our focus on the seemingly insignificant?  Is it because the storyteller wants us to feel strong, even though we are weak?  I’m not sure what Peter Jackson (or for that matter, Tolkien) had in mind.  But I do know that they are not the first storytellers to feel that this was an important point to make.

"For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. Matthew 17:20

The stories that captivate us from the Old Testament and the New are the ones where a small act brings about a great change. One mother placing her baby in a basket changes the fortunes of the Hebrew people forever. One man standing against the giant with his slingshot changes the outcome of a hopeless war. One man refusing to pray to anyone but his own God, and believing even in a den of lions that this was the right thing to do, changes the heart of a king.

And of course, there is the biggest story of weakness defeating greatness.

      “…rather, he made himself nothing… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”  Phil. 2:7-8

It is hard, sometimes, to look at evil’s hold on our world and think that we are capable of ever being true adversaries to evil. What are we? We have scientists pointing out to us that we are so microscopic compared to the rest of the universe that we may as well not exist at all, even while the same scientists are trying to bolster our opinions of ourselves by telling us that we are made out of star cruft. They’re talking about our bodies, of course, which is really irrelevant to our real size.

            “You don’t have a soul. You have a body. You are a soul.”  C.S. Lewis

I believe that we are fascinated by stories like The Hobbit because we know that there is an intrinsic truth. Good does not triumph over evil because good is strong.  Good triumphs over evil because, even with all its frailty, good is ultimately indestructible.  

Whatever plans evil makes, in the imaginary worlds or the real one, evil will lose. Evil has, in fact, already lost.  Because of one man's sentence to die on a cross, evil has utterly, irrevocably, finally lost. 

So when you really think about it, is anything that has aligned itself against evil ever really small?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)                     Logan Lerman and Emma Watson

Rated PG-13 on appeal for mature thematic material, drug and alcohol use, sexual content including references, and a fight - all involving teens.

I did not read this book. I probably will, now that I’ve seen the movie, but I haven’t read it yet.

This was recommended to me by my friends who said “you will recognize the people in this movie. You went to high school with them, too.”  I understand what they meant.  I sat at that table.

There is a lesson that you either learn or that you miss early in high school, and that is that if you have good friends, you don’t need cool friends.  If you have three devoted friends, you don’t need dozens of fair weather friends. And that when you release yourself from the pressure of belonging to any part of the social hierarchy, you drift to your place, and find peace and fun there.

That’s the basic message of this movie. But the spiritual message asks a little bit more of us.

“…do you ever think, that if people knew how crazy you really were that no one would ever talk to you?”

Quick Plot Synopsis

Charlie is a young Freshman who has had some traumatic struggles in his past. We don’t find out what they all are, just that he’s coming out of an incredibly bad year and trying to start over in high school.  He hopes for companionship based on his legendary football-playing brother, and then because of his upper-classmen sister. But there is no help for him there.  He doesn’t find a place to belong until he meets the beautiful but eccentric Sam and her stepbrother Patrick. 

            “Welcome to the island of misfit toys.”

Between this pair, Charlie finds a place to belong, as well as a group of friends who need to be lifted up by him.

            “Thanks for not calling me Nothing, by the way.”

Charlie sees his friends as individually struggling, he sees their pain and their longing and the destructive things they do to themselves.  He observes and he offers help wherever he can, partly to solidify his own position among them, but partly because it’s the only way to stop hurting for them.

            “Teacher: Well, we accept the love we think we deserve.

            Charlie: Can we make them know that they deserve more?

            Teacher: We can try.”

SPOILERS FOLLOW

This movie is not for everyone.  A lot of people I know will watch it and get hung up on the grinding axes.  Some people I know will get distracted by the differences in morality between themselves and the main characters.  So it’s not for everyone.

Charlie and his friends engage in some very risky behavior. They do drugs, they drink, they have destructive relationships, and they all participate in the live Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I just consider to be wildly destructive, although I am told that’s just because I don’t understand how it’s fun. I’m not a prude or anything, I just don’t understand the charm of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.  It’s fabulous in its awfulness.  Like a warthog.  Anyway.  Back to the point.

His friends have also suffered, deeply, real damage. The kind of damage that we don’t like to think about. Those of us who were blessed to escape that kind of damage early in life assume that if a person is not curled up in a corner of a padded room rocking themselves and wishing for a sharp object, they must have escaped it, too.  We don’t always realize that the people we know might be putting makeup on some fairly horrific emotional scars. 

We don’t know.  We don’t actually know anything about the beautiful freaks. (Thanks, Nadia). How are we to know?  So… what are we supposed to do with the people that don’t follow the rules, that make choices we don’t understand, that are destructive to themselves even though they can be loving to others? 

We are placed in the path of broken people and given ways to heal them.  We know that God takes care of the broken, that He never stops reaching out in healing, that He gives people what they need in order to keep putting one foot in front of the next, continuing on their paths.

            “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”  Psalm 147:3

But how does He do that, exactly?  How does God reach someone like, say, Patrick, who is bullied on a daily basis for his sexual orientation? Or like Sam, who was abused as an 11 year old girl?  How does God reach out to those people if they are not sitting in a church, in a pew, reading His word and listening to His music? How does He let them know that they are a priceless part of His plan and heirs to his kingdom? We are placed in the path of the people that need help and acceptance , and then we are given what we need to bring love into their lives.

            “…you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but

          with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” 

                                            2 Corinthians 3:3

I think that the message of this movie is to think very carefully before you reject a person who is reaching out in friendship simply because you don’t understand them. The group of misfits opens itself up to allow Charlie in, and as a result, each member of the group benefits from Charlie’s compassion and empathy. Sometimes that takes the form of something truly lovely.  For example, there is a moment when Charlie buys gifts for each of his friends that reflect that he has truly been paying attention to them.

            “You see things and you understand.”

There is a moment when Charlie realizes that Sam, who he holds in such enormous esteem, thinks very little of herself.

            “...you're not small...you're beautiful.”

And then there is the moment when Charlie saves Patrick.  Not just the moment when he jumps blindly into the middle of a cafeteria full of bullies and saves Patrick from being beaten, but later, when he spends day after day with Patrick while he works through his emotional pain.

Charlie becomes the vessel for their healing, and finds some healing for himself in the process.  The cycle of destructive behavior is something that we see everywhere in society and talk about a lot.  But the cycle of healing is more enduring and eternal. And it is what we are called to do.

            “And in this moment, I swear...We are infinite.”

 In the words of someone no one can agree on, "We are the only Bible some people will ever read."