This is one of those books that usually appears on every child’s book list. As such, it’s on my kids book shelf and we’ve read it many times. So now the movie comes out which looks like a must see from the previews. Then the other day I see an article that questions whether the movie is really for children.

Now I really feel I want to see it, even if it’s without the kids or only with the older one. So this past weekend, I had my eleven-year-old and some free movie time. We saw it and it definitely lived up to the hype. I guess I wasn’t the only one who felt that way either being that it’s the only movie that I have ever left where the audience applauded.

So what ages should see this movie? I would say only five and up and most of this stems from their lack of understanding as well as my feeling that taking any child under the age of five to any movie isn’t necessarily a smart decision. This happened to be exactly what ended up sitting beside me in the theater.

But I was good, I bit my lip through many moments of noise and the toddler and her mother getting up and down. But if your kid still believes in Santa Claus and you promote for them to live only in a world of fantasy, protection from the outside and the sometimes scary world that does exist, then don’t take them to see the movie.

This movie is all about real life and real human feelings and emotions. There’s no fairies, princesses, robots that save the world or magical happy endings. Maybe this in fact is the exact type of movie that children need to see that deals with real fears, insecurities, loneliness and how these things affect us all and the world we live in.

Even the people and families that don’t seem to struggle as much with these issues have experienced related feelings at some point, they are what make us human. There are some real lessons that can be learned in the film about the truth concerning our nature as humans, the not so pleasant side of ourselves, our flaws and our weaknesses. It shows that even when we overcome them by following our hearts, it’s not easy. One of my favorite lines in the movie is “being a family is not easy.”

In the end, our children are left facing these same human types of emotions, battles and struggles. Anyone that says otherwise has just dealt with them by living in denial or through trying to escape them somehow, but they will never go away until we learn to acknowledge and face them. Maybe real films such as these are a real start?