Everyone wants to have a good time, and the film "The Florida Project" starts off with this premise, narrating Moonie's summer holiday at The Magic Castle Motel in Orlando, within close proximity to Disneyland. While Moonie and her friends' enjoyment feature heavily in the film's foreground, what is happening in the background and sideframes offer a much bleaker contrast (Spoilers ahead).
Business at the motel is dwindling such that manager Bobby resorts to renting out room units to housing poor families, which have complicated backgrounds. Bobby sees this as a win-win arrangement for all , and is very sympathetic and accommodating to them, and even then he is forced to tow the line when matters infringe the law. While the adults like him and Ashley juggle burdens of being providers and protectors over the children (there is one particularly harrowing scene where we adults saw how close the kids were to impending danger if it were not for Bobby's efforts), the kids remain largely oblivious to such matters happening around them, completely basking in simple joys.
And this brings me to Halley, Moonie's mother. Plenty of audiences expressed immense sympathy for hers and Moonie's eventual turn of events. Despite how callous it may sound, it may actually be a necessary gamble taken by Social Welfare Services, to separate Moonie from her mother, cruel it may be, to give her a proper opportunity in life. Perhaps like the character Ashley, whatever early empathy for Halley got worn off as events in the film progressed. While we do not negate how unfavourable conditions are stacked against Halley in life, she has displayed a chronic stubbornness against taking ownership of her life, no better than a child.
The best examples demonstrating this are actually in the minor scenes of the film. When everyone gets to know news of a fire breaking out at the abandoned motels, she views this situation as a novelty, getting Moonie to go to the scene and even posing for selfies in front of the burning unit. She is completely oblivious to Moonie's discomfort and guilt, having been responsible for this prank gone wrong. Another example would be her feast with Moonie at the diners, out of spite for Ashley, spending extravagantly despite her already precarious financial situation. And we have not even touched upon her later physical assault on Ashley after the failed attempt to make amends while also soliciting financial assistance. Halley is indeed trapped in the throes of toxic financial impoverishment, but her impulsive and emotional nature and behaviour definitely exacerbated this downward spiral into despair.
Letting Moonie remain with Halley is akin to letting two children take care of each other, a recipe ripe for disaster. We can already see Moonie picking up some of Halley's very undesirable life principles and mindset. Sympathisers will of course protest, decrying that the cruelty of separation will only further toxify Moonie's growing up process. However as Halley does not display any intent to take ownership of her life and situation, the end process when staying with her mother may prove equally hopeless.
When hope is nowhere in sight, we would all like to behave as children do, flying on our Icarus wings into a beautiful land of fantasy, where magical beings miraculously help resolve all our troubles and woes. However in the process, we may not realise the wax holding our wings are slowly melting, and our eventual crash may only serve to plunge what seems like paradise into an inferno. To preserve the rainbow in paradise, we may have to grow up instead.
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