I did enjoy the film with the exception of the ending, which left me unsatisfied and confused, but yeah, the pro-euthanasia message is unfortunate. I wouldn’t go so far to say that Maggie was wrong though, not in that she made the right decision, but in that I don’t believe she was in the position mentally and emotionally to make such a decision. Certainly she made the wrong decision, but her condition makes her wrong decision understandable. Frankie, on the other hand, was morally culpable. The first thing he should’ve done was pushed the doctors for an antidepressant (which they would’ve done in real life). But even in the case of Frankie there were mitigating factors to diminish his culpability: his own despair and confusion, his ignorance and the understanding that euthanasia was a morally permissible option, his genuine love and concern for his good friend who he considered a daughter. Still, Frankie did an objectively wrong thing and is morally culpable for it.
I can’t pretend to understand the agony and despair that this character Maggie felt, but intellectually I know that there is much progress that Maggie could have made spiritually and emotionally in her incapacitated state. Although I was ecstatic to see Maggie finally stick up for herself to her horrible mother and family, she could’ve eventually come to a place of forgiveness. The audience did not witness her pray once. She did not attempt to read and was bored by listening to Frankie read. She did not even consider going back to school.
Jamie
