I had not heard of this movie but came across it at my public library. It seemed like an interesting, enchanting story, my wife and I watched it last night along with a teenage neighbor. While we enjoyed it, most of the time we were puzzled by what was shown and what was said. We weren't sure what the point was, but in the end it probably can be summed up, 'If you are afraid of dying, then you probably also are afraid of living.'
Ryan Flynn (Ryan Kelley) has just lost his grandma, had already lost his dad in a train accident, and now his grandfather was incoherent. Traumatized, young Ryan no longer spoke, although he could have. In an unusual sequence he meets a pretty and happy girl Melanie (Hayden Panattiere) in his somewhat familiar surroundings, but things just aren't the way they seem to be. What follows is Ryan's examination of his fears of dying.
SPOILERS. The incident that begins the journey into the 'dust factory', a place where you can either jump off the trapeze and get caught, then fly away (die and go to heaven), or fall into the dust pit and return to normal life, is when Ryan falls off a train bridge into the water. When he surfaces and goes home, grandpa is now lucid, and Melanie is there too. But this is not his real world, it is more a purgatory. Grandpa is really incoherent, Melanie we learn later is in a coma, and Ryan is about to drown. When grandpa dies, Ryan and Melanie recover to the real world, where they don't quite remember what happened at the 'dust factory', but seem to know something good has happened.
Ryan Flynn (Ryan Kelley) has just lost his grandma, had already lost his dad in a train accident, and now his grandfather was incoherent. Traumatized, young Ryan no longer spoke, although he could have. In an unusual sequence he meets a pretty and happy girl Melanie (Hayden Panattiere) in his somewhat familiar surroundings, but things just aren't the way they seem to be. What follows is Ryan's examination of his fears of dying.
SPOILERS. The incident that begins the journey into the 'dust factory', a place where you can either jump off the trapeze and get caught, then fly away (die and go to heaven), or fall into the dust pit and return to normal life, is when Ryan falls off a train bridge into the water. When he surfaces and goes home, grandpa is now lucid, and Melanie is there too. But this is not his real world, it is more a purgatory. Grandpa is really incoherent, Melanie we learn later is in a coma, and Ryan is about to drown. When grandpa dies, Ryan and Melanie recover to the real world, where they don't quite remember what happened at the 'dust factory', but seem to know something good has happened.