2021 Movie
Dir. Katrine Philp · Denmark · English
A solemn documentary on children's grief that finds its own path to healing
Although (or because) it lacks structure and specific insights into death from the perspective of children, Beautiful Something Left Behind emphasizes what it believes is the more important thing to keep in mind when talking to kids. One cannot impose an adult’s perspective on the way children choose to process their feelings, but one can and should be able to provide a protected space for those kids to speak freely. It’s an incredibly kind film, one that fully believes that young people are already fully formed “characters” whose ignorance about the world isn’t seen as a flaw nor as innocence to be romanticized.
In New Jersey, the Good Grief community focuses on a holistic way of dealing with grief, where children can give in to rage in ‘the volcano room,' and say goodbye to a dying teddy bear patient in ‘the hospital room.' Over the course of a year, we follow the weekly meetings and get close to Kimmy, Nicky, Peter, Nora, Nolan, and Mikayla and their close companion: grief. It is sometimes heartbreaking, but also humorous, to experience the questions about life and death through their open and curious minds. Grief is high and heavy as a mountain, but it helps you understand what has happened, and that death is irreversible.
"It has a knack for finding metaphors and symbols in everyday activities and images, and it presents these in a manner that suggests there's a world beyond the one that we can process with our brains and our senses."
— Matt Zoller Seitz
Different children under the counseling of Good Grief—a facility that helps families and kids process the loss of their loved ones—reflect on death as they go about their daily lives.
As the film follows these kids around, occasionally checking in with them to hear about what thoughts or questions they might have, we still get peripheral peeks into the lives of the adults surrounding them. And as these grown-ups gently invite the children to participate in the little rituals we have to commemorate our dearly beloved (such as visiting memorials for the dead), we ourselves become compelled to think of these habits in a new way. The film never holds our hand or tells us how to feel, but what I drew from it was a reminder to see grieving as restorative rather than self-flagellation. It's remarkably reassuring.
Have to admit that I would gladly give my money to Good Grief solely based on the strength of the pun in their name.
Emil Hofileña is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. He also writes as a theater critic, with work published in Rogue and Out of Print, among others. He’s probably crying over a movie or an episode as we speak.
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