INSIDE OUT, A Short Review by Jennifer Bell

Okay, listen, the writer in me was only moderately impressed by Inside Out. For some reason, I still feel a weird, probably unfounded, loyalty towards Shrek—which my kids don’t get at all. Artistically, I loved Tangled. Brave was awesome, and I was thrilled to take my picture with Merida at Disneyland. Frozen was actually sophisticated, when you think about it.  For the most part, going to the movies with the kids has been a good time, except for that one—what was it?—Freebirds. Not so hot.

But before you think I’m about to dis Inside Out, let me tell you the truth: I think it was awesome. There was more to love about this film than to not love.

I’m only going to tackle a few things, really. How do Christians make sense of emotions? How important are they? What do we do with the secular mantras to “trust your feelings” or “follow your heart”? When should we go with our feelings? When should we suppress them?

Yeah, I’m going to tackle all of that, like, right now.

Oh, wait. I can’t do that. I’ll just tell you that this film is a good one, and it’s a vehicle for discussing our emotional lives with our children. Here are some important take-aways from this film:

·      Emotions are validated. You know, this is pretty radical! I’m not sure what your background is—and I don’t want to get all nuts on you or sound bitter—but some of you conservative Christian types might’ve grown up in chilly, dare-I-say cryptically hostile towards deep feeling homes. Emotions were unpredictable, volatile, like rabid dogs let loose in one’s one mind, or like crazy aunts who came to visit with their whacky chaos. In short, emotions were bad news. As Christians, we have to recognize that people are emotional beings—and this is a great and wondrous things. We get to really experience joy and love and, yes, sorrow—among other feelings. This film carefully carved out legitimate places for real feelings. This film rendered our emotional lives legitimate!

·      Emotions were morally neutral here. Sadness was not evil, you noticed. In fact, sadness was necessary for joy. This might’ve been my favorite part of the film, the harmonizing of feelings. How we handle our anger or our joy may be questionable. It is okay to have an emotional response. Wow! Really! Have you ever felt guilty for a feeling? How did you process your guilt? How did you deal with it as you grew up?

·      As characters matured, their emotional spectrum also increased. We are not only emotional beings, but we are also complex beings. We are capable of mixed emotions.

·      Emotional lives are instrumental in how we hold onto and preserve and process our memories. I really did like this as a writer, the significance of memory. We build stories from emotions, from memories. We carry emotional weight. We are colored by the stories we hold onto and tell. We shouldn’t be too eager to rid ourselves of these burdens.

So, now what? As a kid, I think I was told over and over again how feelings are secondary to thought, how my thought life determined my feelings, how going with my feelings often meant slipping into dangerous territory. I’m not going to renounce this. I’m not. I’m not going to come out and sing the praises of feeling. But I am going to assert the importance of emotions, and the beauty of an emotional life. We are to love the Lord. We should love our neighbors. This love is not a cold, hard love. To be fully human—to love fully—we should fully feel emotion. If we’re not capable of validating emotional experience, we’re missing out on what it means to be made in the image of God.

Inside Out, decidedly secular, spoke a resonant truth. We best not bury it in chilly disregard.

I'D REALLY LIKE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS FILM. I'M SURE THERE'S MORE TO SAY, SO PLEASE ADD COMMENTS HERE OR ON FACEBOOK!