Diversity & Inclusion III - Instructions Not Included

   This week, the class was assigned yet another film to watch called Instructions Not Included.  Before watching the film and only seeing the cover, I assumed it was about a man having an unexpected child he must raise.  This was an accurate assumption, but the details were far more extensive.

Credit: https://usa.newonnetflix.info/info/70284281 

  The film begins with a scene between the main character, Valentin, and his father.  Valentin is a young boy and his father forces him to partake in activities like jumping off a cliff, that intimidates young Valentin.  The film then cuts to an older Valentin engaging in scenes with different women.  The lesson from his childhood comes back to haunt him.  The lesson being able to overcome fears and Valentin's major one is commitment, hence why he is with multiple women and not one.  This theme of commitment continues in the movie when one day a woman from Valentin's past comes to his door with his child.  He is confused and doubts that the child is his, but, by the time he can process it, the woman leaves the child and does not return.  The movie follows Valentin's journey of raising the child.  His initial reaction was fear of commitment as he tries his best to give the child back to his fled mother.  However, he ends up settling with the child and gets a job as a stuntman to provide for him and his new responsibility he names Maggie.
   One of the most touching aspects of the movie was the fact that Valentin wrote letters himself and gave them to Maggie telling her that they were from her mom.  He also copies and pastes images of a woman onto many different images as to portray the made-up woman which is Maggie's mom.  In order to compensate with the truth of Maggie's mother, Valentin makes up stories.  Maggie is bullied in school for the irrational stories she tells the class, yet she does not know any better because her dad makes them up to make her happy, since he knows about her unfortunate future.

Credit: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/miami-film-fest-how-instructions-688826

   In a particular scene near the halfway point in the movie, Valentin and Maggie are in a doctors office.  Valentin receives a shot and Maggie is given vitamins by the doctor.  When Maggie leaves the room, it is revealed that a treatment given to Maggie did not work and she has a limited amount of time to live.
   Later on in the film, Maggie's biological mother, Julie, comes back into Valentin's life to meet her daughter.  Maggie is welcoming and excited to hear about her mom's journeys, which Julie is unaware about.  They hit it off and Julie soon goes to trial to be more involved in Maggie's life.  She looks to take Julie to New York and away from Valentin who, as a stuntman, Julie sees as dangerous and not fit to raise Maggie.  Little does her mother know that Maggie has only a short time to live, and Valentin is being wise in raising her with comfort and happiness.
  Near the end, there is a court scene advocating the pros and cons of Valentin's qualifications to raising Maggie.  One person claims he gives Maggie everything and Maggie is always so happy, while another claims he has allows Maggie to skip school and act out of place.  On the stand himself, Valentin pleads that he quit his stuntman job to get a more fitting job.  He then goes into details about the joy he and Maggie share when they're together like watching the sunset over the sea.  His final word is "I don't think you should give a little girl her father...and then take him away from her, just because the mom thought it over and wants her back."
  At the very end of the movie, Valentin, Julie, and Maggie are watching the sunset in Mexico and Maggie's arms go limp and she passes away.
  The lessons from this movie are that life will throw fears in one's life, but often the things we fear give us opportunities to learn and grow.  Valentin confesses that Maggie did not halt his life as he initially assumed, but rather she taught him how to live and love life.

Credit: https://www.npr.org/2019/02/14/694635029/love-is-_____-more-than-2-000-entries-filled-in-the-blank

   This movie exceeded my expectations.  I was emotional at the end when Maggie died, and I watched this alone which likely amplified my sadness.  The amount of effort Valentin put towards Maggie to make sure she lived a happy life was touching.  From writing letters from a made-up mom to spending each night with her telling her stories, it shows that he cared extensively for her even though the dad life was thrown on him.  In a review by Common Sense Media, it is stated that this film is, "an unorthodox, fanciful portrayal of the loving bond between father and daughter with moments of inspired animation and slapstick action that are combined with real human consequence."