MovieChat Forums > Fluke (1995) Discussion > Terribly Disappointed

Terribly Disappointed

posted 15 years ago by bhappy907
10 replies | jump to latest

Let me preface this with I have a four year old who is now able to enjoy a non-animated movie. So I've been renting all sorts of old non-animated family movies. ET, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Never Ending Story, etc, etc. I rented this the other day because I love Samual L Jackson & Eric Stoltz and thought if they are involved with this project it must be really awesome, and maybe it would have been had I not been thinking it was a family movie suitable to watch with my four year old. Way to heavy and deep for a preschool audience. My bad.

"I'll tell you in another life when we are both cats"

[–] shanna-irl 15 years ago

I watched this today with my 5-year-old and he loved it. I didn't find it heavy and deep at all, but then again I didn't go into a whole pile of detail in explaining the plot to him. The only part he asked about was where the homeless woman went, and I told him she'd gone to hospital because she was sick. I thought it was a nice enough film to watch with him, it held his attention for the full film anyway, which is rare!
The old non-animated family movies were great, we've been watching a lot of them for the last few months. Problem Child 2 went down well too :)
Four legs good, Two legs bad

[–] playbillhound 14 years ago

It is pretty deep, but it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen.

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[–] PopSixSquish 14 years ago

Absolutely...this movie is beautiful, profound, deep, brilliantly acted...it's a little-known masterpiece. I've loved it since I was a young child, but no, it's not quite your typical light and fluffy "cute dog movie for children," and it's probably best to realize that before you show it to kids, in case you're the kind to end up disappointed with it, like the OP.

[–] jelkhorn 14 years ago

Like you said.

I'm really curious what his four-y.o. might have said about "Fluke".

[–] PopSixSquish 14 years ago

Me too...:/

[–] moviemouse87 10 years ago

I would think that there would've been a lot of scenes a young child would've either found disturbing or (at least) confusing. The vivisection laboratory, for one. Our society's practice of putting homeless, free-roaming dogs and cats to death due to absolutely no fault of their own, for another. Why the "dog" chose to run away again instead of staying with his newly-reunited family. Reincarnation vs. the traditional Biblical teachings about life, death and the afterlife—given that Buddhism and other mostly Eastern religions that promote it still (even in this modern post-Christian culture) represent the minority of faith affiliation in the States and most developed European countries.

And I'm sure there are more; but it's been a while since I last viewed the film and so it's hard to remember every detail. The point is, if the child is old enough to watch the movie as a continuous story, rather than just reacting to each separate scene (and the characters) in isolation, it's probably not the best film for kids to watch; at least not without a lot of high-quality adult supervision and input.

[–] PopSixSquish 10 years ago

Mm...I must have watched it as an 8- or 9-year-old kid (given that I was born in '87), and I understood and loved it right from the get-go. I reacted as an adult should, I think, and my appreciation of the film only grew as I aged. It is a lot to take in and to try to grasp, but I guess I already had a decent handle on such difficult, harsh concepts and realities. My parents certainly had no problem with my love for it. And even if they were more devout Christians than they are, I highly doubt they'd take issue with the theme of reincarnation used in fiction, or my belief in its strong possibility. I mean, they could explain away literally anything as "God's will," so...8-p
Nothing in the film was foreign to me even at the age that I first watched it, though.

Fair points, though. This is one of those really dark and heavy "family" films that will be handled well and enjoyed by some kids, but may simply distress others. Parental guidance and discretion would definitely be advisable...especially for any kids younger than I was when I first saw it.

[–] Howlin Wolf 13 years ago

I thought you were going to blame the movie for a second. I'm glad you didn't.

Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

[–] DUKEJBM 12 years ago

This is as bad as cinema gets. I honestly can't believe I made it all the way through. I love Nancy Travis but this thing is a true low point on her resume.

[–] 12 years ago

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