David Godwin - Bedtime Stories - (Topic of Choice #3)

Recently I watched Adam Sandler’s new film Bedtime Stories and thought it would be interesting to contrast with Big Fish. The premise of the movies is somewhat similar. Both movies use the fantasy of bedtime stories to connect to actual life. However, they differ in the cause and effect relationship between the two. In Big Fish, it was the actual event that came first, and the mythic story that came after. In Big Fish the story was used to describe the transcendent, emotional qualities of the real-life experience that could not be captured outside of fantasy. But in Bedtime Stories, it is the story that is the cause of the actual events. Adam Sandler’s character, Skeeter, learns that the kids’ additions to his stories become true in some affect the next day. Just as in Big Fish, though, the stories provide a more fanciful version of what truly happens.
It’s interesting to think about fantasy as the source of reality, though, instead of viewing it as the effect. If we consider God’s vision and thoughts outside of time, they must seem like fantasy. They must be fantastical and impossible just as most myths are. In the Bible, Paul claims that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20). It is our rationality, then that puts a limit to the creative power of God. In prayer we often ask for what we are able to think up and conceive. But God’s imagination is bigger. This reality is illustrated in the film. Once Skeeter realizes the kids’ ability to change his actual life, he begins coaxing them to imagine things for him. But what he asks for (a promotion at his job, for instance) is unimaginative. It’s the best thing that Skeeter can think of, what he strives toward for the entirety of the movie, yet it still does not live up to the imagination of the kids. So, instead, they change the story which results in a fire. In Skeeter’s real life the “fire” translates to his loss of the job. He becomes “fired.” Although it seems that Skeeter’s dreams are shattered, the kid’s bedtime story provides a new ending for Skeeter. Instead of getting promoted at the hotel where he previously worked, he was able to start his own hotel that was closer to his design and intention. Perhaps this is why Christ encourages his disciples to think and ask like children. The faith and imagination of a child is exceedingly abundant before it is corrupted by rationality.