Has an event ever set you so far back that it took a toll on your whole family? And were you able to heal from it?
That’s the plot line of Sketch, the newest movie from Angel Studios. And it hits home in so many ways.
The story
Amber is an elementary school aged girl coping with the loss of her mother. Everything around her annoys her, so she draws pictures to wish it away.
Often violently.
Then the object of her scorn takes her sketchbook on the bus. He sees her drawings. He tattles. And she winds up in the principal’s office.
Meanwhile, the rest of her family are stuck on the outside, wondering what’s happening to her. Her father and brother try really, really hard to cheer her up.
But where does this usually lead? Right, just more pressure to feel better.
It takes the girl’s dad the whole movie of praising her creativity, telling her she’s doing the right thing. He encourages her to express her feelings, even if they are dark and unpresentable. But always balance the bad with the good.
Until her sketchbook falls into a magic pond. Suddenly, all of her drawings come to life. And her whole family has to grow to set things right.
The lesson
This is the healthiest part of the movie: seeing adult figures talking to her, engaging with her, encouraging her to feel her feelings. Especially in a society that would treat her as a problem and put her on medication.
And doing so encourages them to come to grips with their own grief, understanding that things can’t just be made better by burying or ignoring them until they go away.
The movie really hit home because that was me at that age. I had a lot of behavior problems, a lot of creativity, and a lot of people not knowing what to do with me.
I’ve also had family breaking up for talking about mental health issues, creating rifts that lasted for decades, sometimes up until a funeral. Sketch dealt with a lot of this, the whole process of working through the trauma, trying to leave pain behind vs. working through it to what life should mean now.
And the ending is good. Not a super sappy happy ending. Not a bleak, barely made it out alive climax like a typical horror movie.
No, the characters in this ending grow into something more.
There’s hope.
It gives you that solace you feel after a good cry. And that’s the example we need more of, especially in the midst of daunting challenges we grapple with.
Parental Guidance Suggested
That’s stirred up a lot of controversy. Sketch was marketed as a tour de force celebration of children’s creativity. And there are plenty of colorful scenes, dazzling visuals, and introspective reflection to support this. Not to mention a lot of well-timed gags.
But between the high-pitched violin tones, the scary faces on the monsters come to life, and the deft recreation of an iconic scene from Psycho, it has every aspect of a horror movie. One that had my nine-year old back in my bed for three nights afterward.
Like Shaun of the Dead for kids.
Wait, does that kind of marketing actually get families into theaters?
The greatest sin of this movie, though, is making people think when they’re sliding complacently through life.
Show this to the right audience and wonderful things can happen. Watch it with a troubled teen or other family members processing loss.
Talk. And heal.
Haven’t seen Sketch yet? Get your tickets today!
https://www.angel.com/tickets/sketch
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