This film more than any other epitomises for me what a certain kind of upbringing I call "a cold cradle" can do to a person. Children get their first impressions of the world through the beliefs of their parents. These impressions are indelible. Normally, early childhood is spent in the protection of loving parents, but what if these parents are not the cuddling kind? What if they despise your weakness of crying, instead of saying words of comfort? What if there is no place in your family to share feelings and fears? Even when you later discover that it is OK to feel, the defences you have built around your personality in your early years are very difficult to undo and if you have overcome them they are still triggered when you have to deal with your family.
In the film we see four adult siblings who have survived the misery and rebelled, each in different ways. Most people fortunately don't know how terrible it is for the father to put his two boys into his mother's care, his fears seem exaggerated, surely a stern grandmother can't be too bad. But her type of sternness is very damaging not just to overly sensitive people. We see this more clearly as the story unfolds and we learn how each member of the family has coped and yet no one has been able to topple the matriarch from her throne. But as she takes the education of yet another generation in her hands, the tensions mount to breaking point.
This film is not a comedy, though it has its funny moments. It is not a complete tragedy either, and it avoids becoming bleak and depressing.
I think its greatest value is in showing those who have had a warm cradle -- fortunately most -- what it's like to have had a cold one, if it helps increase a general understanding of the emotional difficulties that these people have to overcome to unlock their shielded hearts to their fellow men.
In the film we see four adult siblings who have survived the misery and rebelled, each in different ways. Most people fortunately don't know how terrible it is for the father to put his two boys into his mother's care, his fears seem exaggerated, surely a stern grandmother can't be too bad. But her type of sternness is very damaging not just to overly sensitive people. We see this more clearly as the story unfolds and we learn how each member of the family has coped and yet no one has been able to topple the matriarch from her throne. But as she takes the education of yet another generation in her hands, the tensions mount to breaking point.
This film is not a comedy, though it has its funny moments. It is not a complete tragedy either, and it avoids becoming bleak and depressing.
I think its greatest value is in showing those who have had a warm cradle -- fortunately most -- what it's like to have had a cold one, if it helps increase a general understanding of the emotional difficulties that these people have to overcome to unlock their shielded hearts to their fellow men.