Lessons from the deep

I admit it. I fell in love with a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus this week. My love interest has thousands of other admirers. He is one of the stars of the wildly popular movie released May 8 on Netflix, “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” The movie is an adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt's novel, published in 2022.

Before the book was published, it was optioned for a movie adaptation. When Sally Field was asked about starring in a leading role, she immediately agreed. Who wouldn’t? She got to know Marcellus personally. They developed a loving, interspecies friendship. They shared an intrinsic characteristic: they both had walls around them. Marcellus was walled in by the tank in the aquarium where he had been “rescued.” Sally Field’s character, Tova Sullivan, was walled in by grief. They communicated late at night as Tova carefully cleaned the aquarium’s glass tanks and floors. She sat on the floor by the glass of his tank and opened her wounded heart to the creature with three hearts and nine brains.

Their peaceful aquatic world was upended by the sudden arrival of Cameron Cassmore, played by Lewis Pullman, who was a young man at loose ends. After an injury sidelined Tova from her cleaning job, Cameron became her substitute and reluctant apprentice. The plot added an intergenerational relationship to the interspecies one. Cameron was walled in by grief and abandonment. Where Tova drew herself in, like an octopus going into its den, Cameron developed a devil-may-care attitude and a crustiness that hid his vulnerabilities. Isn’t it interesting that the animal with no shell intervened on behalf of the humans with different kinds of shells?

I am no scientist or naturalist, as are other talented writers for this online journal, like Pat and Angela. I will leave the characteristics of those aspects of this story to them, if they choose to write about them. I point you, instead, to how the grey skies of the Pacific Northwest, where the story is set, mirror the emotions of the main characters. I will suggest that you notice that Marcellus, who is adept at escape, runs into trouble and needs help. The main characters need help, too. It took them a while to notice it. The story subtly weaves in the vital importance of community and interdependence.

The other quirky members of this small community observe more than they let on. Some of them have their own secret hurts. They respect each other’s independence, but they also care deeply. When need arises, they are present for each other. Isn’t that how a community should work?

This movie has its critics. Some say the story is overly simplified. Others say it is too mushy and predictably emotional. To what can we attribute its popularity? It is more than just popular. It touches a nerve and unleashes emotions. A lot of folks have already watched it multiple times in a week. Others report crying or sobbing through it.

On Wednesday evenings, I lead a short devotional and prayer time for our choir. I opened by asking who had seen the film. The mood in the room suddenly shifted from quiet to big smiles and raised hands and murmurs of appreciation and emotion.

Others say it was just what they needed on Mother’s Day weekend, which carries a lot of emotional freight in itself. Still others say it is a story that speaks to what they needed at this time in our country and our world.

The story does not shock or wound or traumatize. It does not aggrandize greed or violence or power. It speaks of hurt with healing. Of loneliness with togetherness. Of anger with resolution. Of isolation with community. It allows its viewers to let down their guard, even for a short time.

There is so much pain, nastiness, and lashing out in our world right now. We have gone inside our shells and built our walls. There is only so much we can take and still feel human.

The closing scene is bathed in sunshine. It is a scene of a happy picnic of everyone together on the beach.

I think heaven will be a picnic like that.