 | Afterlife
 | "Ghosts" have unfinished business to
complete before they can move on - can communicate with the living. |
|
| Alternate Reality
| Entrance to
alternate reality through doors and windows. (See review at Hollywood Jesus.) |
|
| Children as Mediator Figures
| Cole is able to talk to and for dead people. |
|
| Courage
| Cole stops running from the ghosts and turns to
face them. (Pulls sheet off and fearfully talks to one.) He finds
what they want and helps them, and they become less frightening. |
|
| Despair
| The scene of Cole's conversation with Malcolm in
Cole's living room, beginning where Malcolm makes a game to read
Cole's mind, and Cole steps forward when he's wrong and backward
when he's right. Ends with, "You're nice. But you can't help
me." (DVD chapter 5) |
|
| Faith
| Coming to new understandings little by little:
Malcolm comes to believe that it's possible that Cole sees
dead people, and then later comes to realize that he is one of those
people, and decides what to do about that. His understanding is
increasingly personal, and comes through his relationship with Cole,
every bit as much as Cole's "healing" comes through
Malcolm. |
|
| Fear
| "evil" in movie is
symbolic of fear, especially fear of relationship. (See director's comments at Hollywood
Jesus.) |
|
| Grace
| Malcolm is given another chance to help
"Vincent" and another chance to let his wife know what she
meant to him. |
|
| Grief/Loss
| Major themes of how people handle grief and loss -
Cole's loss of his father, Malcolm and Anna's losses. |
|
| Healing
| The mutual healing between Cole and Malcolm. |
|
| Icons
| figurines of Jesus and of
soldiers, pictures, etc become icons. (See review at Hollywood Jesus.) |
|
| Journey
| staircase symbolic of
journey. (See review at Hollywood
Jesus.) |
| Malcolm's journey to make amends in his life and to
say goodbye to his wife. |
|
| Light and Shadow
| many scenes throughout movie of light as good/God and shadow
as evil/death. (See review at Hollywood
Jesus.) |
|
| Reconciliation
| The scene between Cole and his mother. His mother
is reconciled not only to Cole but to her own mother. |
|
| Redemption
| Cole/Vincent and Malcolm redeem each other's lives. |
|
| Sanctuary
| toward the beginning of the film there is a scene where the church becomes the
place of sanctuary for Cole. (See review
at Hollywood Jesus.) |
| toward the end of the film Cole's mother becomes his sanctuary. (See review at Hollywood Jesus.) |
|
| Seeing/Seeing
something differently
| Malcolm's discovery at the end of the movie. |
| Cole's lens-less eyeglasses at the beginning of the
film. Malcolm helps him see in new ways, as he helps Malcolm come to
terms with his own situation. |
| "I see dead people. They don't know they're
dead. They don't see each other. They only see what they want to
see." (Sounds like something that could be said by Jesus in the
Gospel of John.) |
|
