An Analysis of the Movie Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon Dynamite is one of the best illustrations of what it feels like to be lonely ever made. The whole movie is about portraying the many forms of loneliness. All the main characters feel disconnected, misunderstood, and have nobody to relate to.

Napoleon has no friends and lives in fantasy land. He is shunned by everybody. His brother is self-deluded, wanting to be a cage fighter but staying home all the time desperately seeing love and attention on the internet. Their grandmother is never there for them, though she has a full life of her own (a twist on the real life situation of most of the elderly). They live next to a huge field, reinforcing the feeling of isolation. Almost every home in the film is shown isolated. Uncle Rico lives alone on a trailer in the middle of nowhere, obsessed with the past. Pedro is latin and barely intellingible, oddly attired, alien in every sense of the word.

Not even the protagonists seem to truly connect. Their conversations are always a little awkward, as if only 80% of the message was received, often rolling along without any conclusions being reached. There are little details also, like how Napoleon seldom looks someone in the eyes. In fact, his eyes remain barely open throughout the film. Minor details that add to the sense of disconnection.

In the end the protagonists defeat their loneliness: Uncle Rico gets a girlfriend and gets over the past, Napoleon's brother gets a girlfriend who is clearly in love with him, Pedro becomes president and Napoleon's dance makes him popular.

Even so, you don't really get a sense of satisfaction by the time it's over. You get a sense that there's so much more Napoleon needs and that it won't happen anytime soon. Despite his success at teh talent show, he doesn't embrace the popularity at the end. He runs away. He doesn't have the emotional tools to deal with it. He is still fundamentally isolated.

Most people can never really put a finger on what made them feel odd about watching this film. While it's overtly a comedy, the circumstances presented leave most viewers feeling a bit disheartened. Your left with questions that not only aren't answered, they're not even addressed.

Where are Napoleon's parents? for instance. It is a plot point that could be cleared up with a short phrase, but isn't. You're just left to wonder. Did they abandon Napoleon? Did they die? Whatever happened, we're not given closure, just more questions and an underlying discomfort.

It is a discomfort that the filmmaker builds on, punctuating it with absurd humor, leaving you confused about how you should feel.

Napoleon Dynamite is cleverly disguised as a silly comedy, but most people who watch it with that preconception end up a feeling confused. It's just a bit too surreal and a bit too dark.

And that's because it's not a comedy at all.

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