Stepmom: About Death and Dying

Movie Review Stepmom By For November 16th, 2010 REL201 The film rate mom beautifully portrays the effects stopping point and dying(p) can lay down on a family. Even star same(p) the Harrisons, where the parents are dispel up, and and a new women has come into Lukes resilient. Their leave alone al shipway be several(predicate) ways of header with decease and that is shown through all the characters, be it pixilated willed like Luke and Jackie, negatively and dramatically like the young lady Anna, or positively and unaware like the son Ben. All these different ways of coping lay down this film an ideal one to view the different ways one can cope.Throughout the film Stepmom death is shown as both a negative and positive affecting occurrence. When the main character Jackie Harrison is first told that her diagnosed genus Cancer has became untold worse, she is spiteful and hate-filled. She resents the item that her recently divorced husband is instanter getting married t o a younger woman, she is also angry that her brotherhood to Luke didnt mould out, and is also saddened at the fact that she will never live to see her children grow up. The positive aspects of death in this film is that Jackie short realizes that she has to come to grips with her inevitable death.This allows her to live her remaining months in peace with her children and hitherto become happy with Luke and Jena Malone getting married. In the circumstance on Jackie Harrison, death is not presented as a natural unwrap of the life cycle. Cancer, is a modern problem with no modern cure as of yet. It endangers and ends galore(postnominal) young lives throughout the world. Jackie was already diagnosed with cancer a year before, however, when she went for a re-evaluation it was found that the cancer had re-appeared and had intensified in her body. This shows that cancerous cells can depart to form at anytime in ones body and is not a atural part of the life cycle. In the case of Ja ckie there are two sides. At first when re-diagnosed she is very fearful. Not for herself, but rather for her children. Jackie is afraid that she will not be able to see her children once again, and be able to find out them grow up and lead fulfilling lives. She is delivered more bad news at a dinner by her ex-husband. Luke tells Jackie that he is to marry Jena Malone. Jackie is angered again and can not bare to tell Luke that she is in fact dying of cancer and will not be around to raise their children. other scene depicting anger is after Ben falls off the melt structure and eeds stitches.At the hospital she tries to see her son, but Jena is already there comfort him. He asks Jena to sing her a song because Mommy always does (Stepmom). As Jackie looks on from outside the room Jena sings for Ben and she is angered by this and goes home and has a fit in her home. Jena uncovers Jackies secret through a conversation they prevail at her home. She tells Jena that she is infect goi ng to L. A. to see an oncologist for treatment. Jena is saddened to hear that the ex-wife is dying of cancer and asks are you dying? , to which Jackie replies Not today (Stepmom). This in turn affects Luke who is the side by side(p) o find out and thus feels guilty. He feels as though it should ca-ca been him and not Jackie. They decide to tell the children about the cancer unitedly and this scene provides the most dramatic effect of the movie. Ben takes the news very gently and is intrigued as to what his mom is enduring, there is a doubt as to how much Ben k nowadayss about the situation. He thinks its less serious then it actually is. The daughter Anna, is immediately angered by the news and storms off. As she heads upstairs Luke yells You do not run out on your mother, and she replies No thats your telephone circuit (Stepmom).This scene is important because it shows how the family as an entirety deals with death. The message of the film Stepmom is overly fully appreciate o nes life to the fullest while you can, and to truly live like you were dying. It also has many family values attached to the death process. Jackie who has always enjoyed her children now sees the reasons to why she is truly enjoying them. After hearing that her cancer has got worse she decides to breathe home and take time with to be with her family. Luke even becomes more complicated with her as her condition worsens, something he never did when they were together and she was healthy.A kind of wry tragedy. It also portrays that Jackie will never be able to be replaced as the childrens mother but Jena can do more by creation there for them while they live on without Jackie. In one of the lasts scenes Jena and Jackie make amends and realize that the kids wont have to choose and that they could love them both. I have their past, and you can have their future (Stepmom) is what Jackie says in comfort to Jena. The white come down that Ben always asks about has dual meaning throughou t the film. Ben believes every thaumaturge needs a white dove, but the dove in fact symbolizes freedom and life.The symbolism of the dove also has heavy meaning towards Jackie. It would dissemble her long after she is gone and would be the confidant of the young Ben. In the final scene at Christmas time, Jackie is at this point very ill. When Ben comes upstairs to Jackies room to get his present from her she is alone in a chair. She smiles and gives Ben a jokeians cape to continue living his childhood dream of becoming one someday. She then goes downstairs after Anna comes to get her, and helps Luke, Jena and Ben perform a magic trick to uncover the white dove in the cage underneath the magicians cape.It is symbolic because this white dove will represent Jackie and her continued keep back of her son long after she is gone. Stepmom was a great film to overtake in terms of understanding how a family can cope with death and dying. It shows the contrasts of family values, ways of c oping with death and also the support system a family can have throughout times of crisis. Even though Jackie and Luke were no longer together they found a way to make things work when the children and Jackie needed it the most. It is inspiring to see such love and compassion in a difficult situation, even when at the eginning of the film there was nought but resentment towards each other, a common bond, brought them together and hand-to-hand then ever, even if it was a negative one. Cancer continues to be a serious threat for todays modern society and we must continue the run against to someday have a cancer free earth.Bibliography I) Stepmom, DVD, Directed by Chris Columbus, (1998) Columbia Pictures, Hollywood. California II) http//www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC2569562/pdf/jnma00195-0137. pdf Heather M. Butts,JD,MPH III) http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Stepmom_(film) IV) http//www. mediacircus. net/stepmom. html