MovieChat Forums > Stuck (2009) Discussion > “Stuck” – A Brief Analysis

“Stuck” – A Brief Analysis

posted 11 years ago by esmeralda-loves-jai
1 reply | jump to latest

** SPOILER ALERT **

“Stuck” presents the audience with several very compelling themes:

- the homeless (the destitute) and young adolescents can have more integrity and decency than health care professionals
- just because one may have a respectable career does not mean one is spiritually mature or kind/ compassionate
- what one does for a living is not always reflective of one's moral character
- what goes around comes around (karma)
- appearances are deceptive.
- lack of accountability for one’s actions never leads to positive outcomes

I could go into depth with each idea. However, (for the sake of being brief) I will just explore the last one. After all, RESPONSIBILITY for one’s actions and choices is central to the story.

This movie is a cautionary tale for individuals in society who fail to take full responsibility for their choices and actions.

Right after the hit-and-run, Brandi projects blame on Thomas Bardo. She fails to acknowledge that she had any part to play in the accident. She was on the cell-phone and did not see him crossing the road. But she never admits to any wrongdoing on her part.

She did not have a shred of decency in her. She did not alert the authorities, she did not drop Thomas to the hospital, and she didn’t even try to extricate him from his situation and help him herself. Instead, she whiled her time away having reprobate sex with her equally degenerate boyfriend.

She had several opportunities to come to Thomas’ aid and remedy the situation, but she did NOTHING. Instead, she inflicted MORE hurt and pain on the poor fellow. Thomas even told her that he would walk away from the whole situation and not hold her accountable if only she helped him. But still, Brandi remained callous.

Because of her negative choices, Brandi attracted her fate – her death – to her.

It didn’t have to be that way. She could have changed the course of events and maybe could have even made them work in her favour. But she failed to take responsibility for what she did.

Thus, this film showcases the supreme importance of acknowledging the great role we play in creating our individual realities. Every choice that we make has effects in our wider world. Failure to recognize this fact of life leaves us STUCK in a negative loop – creating one mishap after another, until we meet our doom.

Well… that was my two-cents. I realize what I said is pretty obvious, but still, it was fun to take a moment and share my thoughts.

Thanks for reading. Cheers.

[–] rooprect 10 years ago

Thus, this film showcases the supreme importance of acknowledging the great role we play in creating our individual realities. Every choice that we make has effects in our wider world. Failure to recognize this fact of life leaves us STUCK in a negative loop – creating one mishap after another, until we meet our doom.

Nice analysis, and I'm sure you caught the recurring line in the film where someone presents Bardo with an ultimatum and says, "It's your choice." In each case Bardo took the less hostile course of action even though he would be well within his right to go psycho.

I wanted to comment on another point you made: "what one does for a living is not always reflective of one's moral character."

If this film weren't based on a true story, I would've said the writer was brilliant for making her a healthcare professional. But that wasn't clever writing; that was fact.

It illuminates the sad point about the self-righteous. People are quick to pat themselves on the back because they save lives or bring about world peace or whatever their professions supposedly do, but on a personal level, when it comes right down to 1-on-1 interacting with another human being, how noble are these same people? Often there's a weird disconnect, as if the person leaves their professional ethics at the workplace while in the privacy of their own homes they become degenerates. What a great illustration this story makes of that scary reality.