Their performances are more believable than the two romantic leads in TITANIC, a movie which TUCK EVERLASTING slightly resembles. Family life is a value that Winnie receives not only from Angus, but also from his wife, Mae, as well as in an important scene of reconciliation between Winnie and her own mother.Īlexis Bledel and Jonathan Jackson as the two teenage lovers, Winnie and Jessie, do a fine job. Thus, in the end, TUCK EVERLASTING validates traditional family life. The purpose she finds is stated explicitly at the end of the story: Winnie becomes a beloved wife and mother. “Be afraid of the unlived life.” He encourages Winnie to live her life as she finds it, under the real threat of eventual mortality, and to find a purpose for her life. “Don’t be afraid of death,” he tells her. Mitigating these problematic elements are a couple important moral elements.Īt one point during the tale, Jesse’s father, Angus, tells Winnie that the immortality which the magical water grants to his family is not all it’s cracked up to be because it has forced them to become isolated from the rest of humanity. A narrator says to introduce the story, “Time is like a wheel turning and the woods are the hub of the wheel.” Also, a person escapes proper justice in the resolution to the story, thus lending a tone of moral relativism to the presentation. It foregoes that potential redemptive dynamic, however, in favor of a morally ambiguous resolution that will not satisfy the vast Christian audience that has made such recent movies as SIGNS and SPIDER-MAN so successful at the box office.įor example, the movie relies upon pagan metaphors like the Wheel of Time and the Circle of Life, couched within an environmentalist message about protecting sacred nature. TUCK EVERLASTING could have strengthened these themes by making a stronger tie to such biblical themes as the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As such, there are many moral, philosophical and theological issues contained within it. It’s also, however, a story about immortality, greed, good and evil, nature, the stages of life, and personal destiny. TUCK EVERLASTING is a love story between a teenage girl and boy, Winnie and Jessie. The town’s search for Winnie puts the Tucks’ magical secret within his greedy grasp. When he hears that Winnie has disappeared in the woods, he deduces that the Tucks have something to do with her disappearance. The Man in the Yellow Suit has already taken an interest in Winnie and her family, however. Miles kidnaps Winnie to keep the family secret from being exposed. They have been followed, however, by a curious man in a yellow suit, who plans to take the family’s secret for himself. Jesse and his older brother, Miles, have just returned from a trip to Paris. For Jesse and his family have an interesting secret that puts their whole family at risk: they live near a spring of water by an old oak tree that grants immortality to anyone who drinks from it. She gets lost in the woods near her home and happens upon Jesse Tuck, a teenage boy whose mysterious family hides out in nature, free from the prying eyes of civilization. Winnie longs to be free from the tight structure of her wealthy family. The story focuses on Winnie Foster, a teenage girl on the cusp of womanhood. Though based on a classic children’s novel published in 1975, it embraces some moral, philosophical elements that make it less than ideal for its primary audience – young impressionable minds. TUCK EVERLASTING is a bittersweet romantic fantasy set in 1914. The movie also contains some pagan worldview elements that require caution Content: Hence, it is not as satisfying artistically or spiritually as it could have been. The acting is excellent and the direction impeccable, but TUCK EVERLASTING fails to capitalize fully on the potential moral, redemptive elements in its story. The dangerous Man in the Yellow Suit has already taken an interest in Winnie and the Tucks. Jesse’s older brother, Miles, kidnaps Winnie to keep the family secret from being exposed. Jesse and his family have a secret that puts their whole family at risk: they live near a spring of water by an old oak tree that grants immortality to anyone who drinks from it. She gets lost in the woods near home and happens upon Jesse Tuck, a teenager whose mysterious family hides out in nature, free from the prying eyes of civilization.
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