Just as it's name implies, this movie grew on me. It certainly left me with a feeling to see it again to make sure I had connected all the metaphoric dots creatively laid out for me.
The film weaves and knots a moral tale implying that we are all not only enablers but addicts to something, whether it be drugs, past glory, love, control or freedom. The characters' cracked facades only temporarily protect them from the dangers outside their front door and inside themselves. While leaning on each other, none of the characters ever obtain the help they help they need to "kick the habit" and it is their eventual undoing. It is a sad tale in which everyone looses something, unable to break out of the sweet sickness enabling their self-victimization.
While slow and repetitive at times, the characterizations are humanely broad enough that we see a little of ourselves in each one. The lighting of the film in golden and sunny overtones, the over-the-top silly humor at times, the fair-like set sweetens the bitter lesson this moralistic tale pours for us to swallow. Just as there is no such thing as an American Cowslip, there is no such thing as just an addict out of control.
The film weaves and knots a moral tale implying that we are all not only enablers but addicts to something, whether it be drugs, past glory, love, control or freedom. The characters' cracked facades only temporarily protect them from the dangers outside their front door and inside themselves. While leaning on each other, none of the characters ever obtain the help they help they need to "kick the habit" and it is their eventual undoing. It is a sad tale in which everyone looses something, unable to break out of the sweet sickness enabling their self-victimization.
While slow and repetitive at times, the characterizations are humanely broad enough that we see a little of ourselves in each one. The lighting of the film in golden and sunny overtones, the over-the-top silly humor at times, the fair-like set sweetens the bitter lesson this moralistic tale pours for us to swallow. Just as there is no such thing as an American Cowslip, there is no such thing as just an addict out of control.