This film is able to tap into a side of loneliness that's hard to describe. Lars resists attachment from the people who want to connect with him because of his fear of the inevitable: everyone leaves and/or dies. He blames himself for his mother's death in childbirth and had to grow up living with the sadness that it caused his father-- and he didn't want to be the cause of grief again to anyone.

It's the kind of isolation that everyone experiences but very few know how to cope with. I like how the psychiatrist describes Lars' process of coping as "a way to work something out." Lars needed the delusion to brave the inevitable tragedy of death and parting. In the end, he internalizes this when he lets go of Bianca.

This, among others, becomes part of his 'initiation' to maturity. The film subtly centers around unresolved tensions between two brothers. Gus is everything Lars isn't: he is socially-stable and 'mature,' which is what Lars wants to be. At the same time, Gus struggles with his own inability to connect with his brother, carrying a guilt he has long set aside: abandoning Lars. It's through Lars' own way of coping that Gus is able to work on his own qualms.

The film comes with a comforting catharsis. It's the thing to watch in times when you're going through those pulses of isolation that just come and go with no rhyme or reason.