[luxinterior]

That's almost exactly what I'm trying to get across. The problem is that I'm seeing more and more movies that try to portray dysfunctional families as they really are, as well as the sometimes alarming events that have taken place that contribute to that dysfunction. Unfortunately, most of them fail miserably because the characters don't react honestly. Of course the script writer can sit down and think of a dozen clever ways in which Character X can respond in any given situation. That's part of the problem though, when you have these filmmakers who set out to realistically portray things like the breakup of a family, drug addiction, taboo relationships, etc, and yet their characters are more subhuman and unbelievable than ever. Each filmmaker usually has their own agenda, their own shtick, that they rarely challenge. This is before they even start writing/making their movie. The film suffers because of it, because the film is much bigger than the person who sat down and wrote the script. It's just an overall feeling that I get when I've watched the movies that I mentioned earlier. Like the characters were lifeless.