GOD LOOKS OUT FOR FOOLS, CHILDREN, AND DRUNKS. EXCEPT WHEN HE DOESN’T. Speaking of Frozen, I’ve been fascinated by the reviews I’ve read online. I mean, it is not a great movie–it is not the Hamlet of being stuck on a ski lift. But in a way that makes it a perfect Rorschach test. Virtually all of the negative reviews I’ve seen point out how stupid these people are, how unnecessary their torment really was.

And… for me, that was actually one of the best parts of the movie. I loved The Descent in large part because outside of the central terrible decision, the women are hyper-competent. They’re better than me. Seeing their terror was a reminder that no matter how amazing and competent you are, there are things in life you can’t control, and that’s genuinely horrifying and tragic. The best qualities of the people you love won’t save them.

But I loved Frozen for the opposite reason. These people screw up the way I’ve screwed up about one thousand times in the past year alone–except that they get the consequences, and I mostly haven’t. I was overdrawn late last year (don’t worry, Mom, it’s fine!) by my own fault. Last weekend I left my laptop unattended in a public place because it was inconvenient to take it with me while I went to get my cafeteria food, and it didn’t get stolen. If it had been taken I would fully expect everyone to tell me that I’d been stupid–even though all of us take risks like that all the time. If you don’t take major risks fairly frequently, I’m guessing your caution is the result of neurosis rather than prudence. We walk down dark alleys and we make snap decisions and most of the time this turns out to be either awesome or neutral.

And then one day it’s not.

I love that Kindertrauma’s review emphasized the “there but for the grace of God go I” aspect of the movie. While I genuinely think it’s well-paced and beautifully-shot, neither of those things will mean anything to you if you resist identifying with the characters. And I identified with them not because I have ever skied (I can’t think of a recreational activity I’d enjoy less) but because I’ve often taken my safety for granted, or taken dumb risks. I try to do that a lot less now, because I’m not twenty anymore and I care about the people who care about me, but I’m not going to cram my life into the two-foot-by-two-foot box of sanity and safety.

I know that a lot of horror movies bank on characters making dumb decisions which are really hard to fathom. I liked the kids in Jeepers Creepers a lot, but I thought the initial decision which put them in danger was inexcusably stupid and naive, and threatened more lives than their own. So I get that a lot of the time, “Why the $#@! did you go in the barn?!” is a valid complaint about horror movies! I just don’t think it applies to Frozen very well, because the bad decisions are so normal and small, and because the stupidity of those bad decisions isn’t glossed over by the narrative at all.

So yeah: The kids in Frozen are stupid. That’s why horrible things happen to them. They made a lot of small, understandable bad decisions, each one of which drew them down toward destruction. And when horrible things happen to you because of your own stupidity–I can guarantee, this will happen–you will not want or need people to tell you you should’ve thought twice.