Flipped begins with two unreliable narrators: our two protagonists. More than narrating the events, our young couple narrates from their misguided and unknowing perspectives.
We have Bryce who wants nothing to with Julie and whose judgement may be a bit skewed and outright horrible. Then, we have Julie who sees nothing of Bryce’s apparent discomfort and dislike of attention. However, in retrospect, I’ve come to believe that Julie had a more accurate understanding of the situation.
Julie was a girl with a bright outlook. She appreciated her surroundings and explored the world she lived in. There was a love of life in her every action; from her egg hatching experiment to her lovely sycamore tree. She saw the world like a flower in bloom.
Bryce, on the other hand, was cynical. There was fear and aversion in how he lived his life. I think it’s why he didn’t Julie who was like the sun who lit everything up. He thought he preferred the shallow but pretty Sherry Stalls; he thought he had a best friend in Garett who would betray his intentions and seek his own benefit instead. Despite that, he wouldn’t see through the fog until the end of the movie.
It was easy to think Bryce was more reasonable in the beginning; Julie had been somewhat overbearing. But as the plot develops, Bryce becomes more unreliable and his personal issues become apparent. It was so when he left Julie to fend for her sycamore tree on her own, and especially so when he refused to eat the eggs Julie gifted.
Bryce wasn’t to blame. Even as Julie’s background is revealed, how her uncle is in a private care facility and how their family lives humbly, how Bryce behaved wasn’t a product of his principles but the screwed up mentality of his father’s who believes that whatever misfortune he has encountered must be shared and perpetuated so it won’t be unfair to himself. That he couldn’t continue a music career, that he couldn’t be happy, for some reason, it is the fault of the world and its people.
Bryce wasn’t a jerk; the influence of his father brought up his insensitivity and apathy toward the wellbeing of others. It took Bryce until the dinner with the Loskys that that wasn’t how he wanted to be.
It was at that moment that Julie’s view of their first meeting truly made sense. It only affirmed the fact that it was Julie who was the reliable narrator from the beginning.
It was difficult to see but Bryce would become someone more than some of his parts. He would tower over the negative portion that he received from his father and rise over his horrible past. He’d start with his first true mistake: Julie’s beloved sycamore tree.
Maybe then, the two of them would grow as tall and as cherished by Julie. And this time, beloved and held dear by Bryce as well.
Flipped Serendipity 