While no doubt conceived with great sincerity, the story for this film could serve as the definition for sophistry. Somehow we are to swallow an emotional appeal revolving around what has been set-up as the "real" meaning of the American Thanksgiving feast. But while the film makes that point, it has a second agenda as well, in which we are maneuvered into accepting the lives and behaviors of the main characters, all of whom are hopelessly self-absorbed, dissociated, and conflicted. They are not likable. They don't like themselves and they don't like each other. Why they are so messed up and dysfunctional is never treated, but we are supposed to endorse them anyway, as though blind acceptance was sufficient to excuse them.
The second agenda is intended to sell us on their self-centeredness and blatant immaturity, while the main point pretends to prove an argument by appealing only to our feelings. In other words, if and when we feel good about the conclusion, we will also have bought the second agenda, and that's what is meant by sophistry. The message about Thanksgiving is a ruse, for what is otherwise a work of propaganda. Never mind that April's life is a disaster of too much self-indulgence without concern for responsibility, or that her mother is even worse. Never mind that her relationship with Bobby is childish and superficial, because interracial relationships are still considered quite trendy. Just "accept" all their tragedy of mind and spirit gone wrong, and feel good about the emotional conclusion.
The second agenda is intended to sell us on their self-centeredness and blatant immaturity, while the main point pretends to prove an argument by appealing only to our feelings. In other words, if and when we feel good about the conclusion, we will also have bought the second agenda, and that's what is meant by sophistry. The message about Thanksgiving is a ruse, for what is otherwise a work of propaganda. Never mind that April's life is a disaster of too much self-indulgence without concern for responsibility, or that her mother is even worse. Never mind that her relationship with Bobby is childish and superficial, because interracial relationships are still considered quite trendy. Just "accept" all their tragedy of mind and spirit gone wrong, and feel good about the emotional conclusion.