Magnolia

“I have a lot of love, I just don’t know where to put it!”

Magnolia is a movie about some very unhappy people. Very unhappy. Various characters are dying of cancer, abusing drugs, in adultery and homosexuality, in poverty, controlled by their parents, rejected by their children, and just messed up in general. The movie follows nine (!!) main characters through a couple of days as their lives touch each other and they attempt to grapple with their problems.

“You may be through with the past, but the past isn’t through with you.”

The moral center of the movie is the Christian cop. Bad things happen to him, but he does the right thing and manages to rise above his circumstances. When he encounters the other characters, he extends grace to them, breaking their downward spiral of failure and self-destruction.

“The question is, What do we forgive?”

I found the movie difficult to watch. First, it is over three hourse long. Second, it lingers over the agony of the characters with little relief. (There is some comic relief in just how totally messed up some of the characters are.) Finally, it has more profanity and language than I’ve heard since . . . well, since I left my last job in Atlanta.

Nevertheless, it is a powerful movie. I found that I identified in some major way with at least four of the nine characters. It squarely faces the destructive consequences of sin, as well as the way our sin affects the people around us. At the same time, though, it isn’t a hopeless movie, but shows the effects of forgiveness and grace, as well.

I’m glad I watched it. It’ll probably be some time before I subject myself to it again (if ever).