Hans Kuendig

Love the story, as tragic as it was at times, but isn't that life. In many ways, her thesis—Life as the ultimate unreliable narrator—is a metaphor for the story. It is a wonderful concept that I'd love to discuss over coffee, drinks, at parties, with friends … over and over, because it is meaningful. "Life itself proves to be the most unreliable of narrators, forever taking us on a journey where it is impossible to predict what might happen next. Life itself tricks us and misleads us and paints one man a hero when he may well be a villain. Villain or a hero? Life is playing the role of unreliable trickster yet again…" How many hours of our lives do we spend thinking about relative nothings and talking about trivial somethings. Here we are presented with something meaningful to think about and talk about. Do our stories have any significance, and who is the reliable narrator of our stories? All of life is connected and interdependent. We know this to be true. And so yes, our lives do matter because not matter what we do, our actions influence the patterns of life, in general, and at times quite powerfully. This is a movie that tells a story, but it is also a movie that provokes and makes us think about life. I agree with those who said that the critics simply did not get it. But let's also remember that anytime we do anything over and over, we become numb to feeling that thing in all its beauty, sorry, joy, ugliness, and reality. It is a rare individual who can fight off this numbness and live each moment with beginner's mind (Shunryu Suzuki). I also appreciated the pointer to Dylan's 1997 album. Downloaded some of those great songs I was unfamiliar with until now.