Eucatastrophe Reader

Land REVIEW

The word “Land” is a double entendre here. Clearly, it refers to the setting of the film. The main character moves into an abandoned cabin in the Montana mountain wilderness after a family tragedy and the stunningly beautiful scenery plays an important role in here healing. But the word “land” is also a verb that means “to cause to rest in a particular place” “to bring to a specified condition” “to complete successfully” or “to catch and bring in.” All of these other definitions describe the movement of plot in this film.  Throughout the movie, we are left to wonder if this woman will successfully assimilate her loss and return to the world as a functioning adult. We wonder if her fellow humans can ever reclaim her. We are not told until the end of the movie just what losses drove her to forsake the world are and this serves the film’s interests (and the viewers) in that we are able to fill in the gap with the losses in our own lives that might make use do what she is doing.

What seems apparent from the opening scenes is that she has committed herself to not ending her own life. But in some weaselly way that human nature has of getting around commitments, she has not agreed to avoid putting herself in a situation where nature could take her life. She is tempting the harsh realities of a Montana winter to carry out her suicidal ideation for her. And into the door of the cabin one freezing cold winter night a stranger arrives – some one who will twice save her. Her life first and then her desire to live second. To say more would to spoil the plot excessively.

 Question for Comment: What losses have you overcome and not overcome? What makes the difference between those two categories?

"He stood and faced the reality of death for my sake."

Our Friend REVIEW

First, I should say that this film is based off the May 2015 article entitled “The Friend” by Matthew Teague in Esquire Magazine. The article may be even more compelling than the film. “We don’t tell each other the truth about dying, as a people,” Matthew writes in the article, “Not real dying.”

The article is about the two-year ordeal that he and his family experienced as his wife died of cancer. Perhaps more directly, it is an article about Matthew’s friend Dane who quit his job and moved in to help for almost an entire year. It is really a story about what friends do sometimes. It is about the miracle of self-sacrifice that periodically makes its presence known in the world along with all its brokenness. What we learn from the article and the movie is that a friendship can be as divine as cancer is evil. What we learn is something about what it means to carry a burden, even when it literally can mean carrying a person.

Dane arrives, consoles, serves, lifts. He suffers alongside, he protects, he creates a barrier. Dane babysits, cleans, cooks, parents, distracts, sacrifices, arranges, collaborates, encourages, and advises. He tells his friend the truth when the truth needs telling. He sits and watches TV when the company is essential to sanity. He makes a space for laughter in the dark shadows of Mt. Doom. Sometimes he sits in silence. “In just a few words,” Matthew writes: “Dane saved me. “

He is like Samwise Gamgee to Frodo in Lord of the Rings.

“I had married into this situation, but how had he gotten here?” Matthew asks in his article, “Love is not a big-enough word. He stood and faced the reality of death for my sake. He is my friend.” We get the sense from the movie that this ability to be a friend is something that Dane came into the world gifted to do. No matter what else he may not have been gifted to do.

Question for Comment: Are you a good friend?