[jodylync]

I suggest watching again.   The 1st time I saw it, I thought it was okay.  I watched it again over the weekend to give it another try.  I ended up sobbing the entire movie.  I was so blown away!  I got the message this time.   I heard "awareness", "purpose," and "you are all connected" this time.  The strange apartment tenants who I kind of dismissed the first time were now heroes.  Suddenly, I understood that now matter who we are, no matter our background, no matter our social/financial/etc situation, we each are important!  We each have a purpose even though we might not know what it is.  Sometimes we try to fit into a role that we are not meant to fill.  This movie reminds us that there is no need to spend our life pushing to find our purpose.  Most often the role that we are meant to play somehow finds us.  Think of the end of Unbreakable when Elijah Price (Mr Glass) says "Do you know what the scariest thing is?  To not know your place in this world.  To not know why you are here.  That's just an awful feeling."

LITW reminds us that it is not necessary to find our purpose.  More likely our purpose will find us.  So, if you are an M. Night fan, consider watching it again.  Have these points in your mind when you watch it.  Yes, it is a fairy tale, but one with a beautiful moral to the story.   

[Erin]

I understand what you mean cos the first time I saw it I just liked it but I didn't adore it. I watched it again twice some weeks ago, and I realized this movie was just beautiful and deep.

[Mr. Heep]

I cannot believe how much of a parallel your post is to how I approached this film.

First time I thought, "Meh. Not bad," and didn't care after that. I just remembered that I enjoyed it, but thought it incredibly bizarre. I still couldn't stop thinking about it, though, so I bought the DVD. Watched it a second time.... then a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time all within a week. I adored it after the second viewing; I cried every time at the end after the second viewing. I made a wallpaper that took 6 hours to make, got the complete score and have listened to it at least 10 times all the way through... it's the cause for me to even join this website.

You're absolutely right, jody. It really does require a second viewing to "get" it.

[Imalshen]

I know! I'm one of the few people who just loved it from the start, but so many people I convinced to watch it a second time were like "How did I not see this before?"

Night's one of those film makers who you have to watch multiple times. You always find something new you did not notice before.

[Rulm]

I own it and seen it quite a few times. I think he has some nice ideas buried beneath all the egotistical scenes and stereotyped characters and its unbelievable mythology, but in the end, I don't think there was a point to this movie. Probably Night's biggest ego-trip.

[Imalshen]

No ego trip. It was for his kids. Didn't you see the dedication at the end of the credits?

I love how everyone else is allowed to be in their own movies except Night...and seriously, how many people even knew it was really him?

[marco]

The fact is: he made the movie ---> he does what he wants.

[Imalshen]

Yeah, we all do what we want in our creations. I write what I want in my books. That's what's so fun about it. I can use magic or bring back dead characters, or not, or whatever. It's artistic license. I don't often see it as a bad thing. Doesn't mean I'll like it, though in this case I did.

[Namaste]

Rulm, the mythology is not so hard to believe. In fact it is practically religion these days (New Age) just google "indigo [blue?] children" (from the blue world? not to mention the "atlantean" source of much of the knowledge they believe we need to learn about ourselves to reach enlightenment)