The Real Meaning Of Bones & All (It's Not About Cannibals) (2024)

Bones and All is an intense story about cannibals on the surface, but below that, its real meaning is extremely beautiful. The movie follows Maren (Taylor Russell) and Lee (Timothée Chalamet) on a Midwestern road trip as they fall in love while eating to survive. Technically, Bones and All falls under the horror genre, but it is just as much a romance despite its bloody and violent exterior. The romantic connection between Maren and Lee and their journeys of growth and identity make the movie work so well.

Luca Guadagnino does an excellent job using the horror of cannibalism as a disguise for a coming-of-age story that many people, especially young adults, can relate to. 2022 was a big year for horror, but one thing that lots of the biggest horror movies have in common is that they are packed full of profound messages. Bones and All is no different. The strong emotions the film evokes from its audience aren't about its shocking subject matter but about what it's like to feel different from others and how good it feels to find somebody who understands.

Bones & All Is A Love Story

It Is Not A Cannibal Story

Combining horror and romance is a rare mix of genres, but it works here, as the horror serves as a stylistic tool that makes the romantic story effective. Bones and All's main characters may be cannibals, but the story itself isn't about cannibalism. Call Me By Your Name was a Guadagnino romance that took a more straightforward approach, telling what might be a controversial love story but one that is easy to comprehend. This time, Guadagnino uses cannibalism to represent something society looks down upon so the audience understands the leads are different from everybody else.

Most people wouldn't find a story about cannibals relatable, but many can relate to feeling different from others. That's the movie's beating heart — that Maren and Lee love each other because they can see each other for who they are. It's also why the ending leaves so many heartbroken. Maren losing Lee and eating him as one final gesture of their love for each other is extremely powerful when one can understand what fuels that love.

What Eating Someone "Bones & All" Really Means

Lee & Maren Need To Achieve A Higher Level

Jake (Michael Stuhlbarg) is one of many cannibal characters in Bones and All, and he's the one who first introduces the concept of "bones and all." He describes to Maren and Lee that Brad (David Gordon Green), with whom he appears to have a romantic relationship, was not originally an eater, but Jake turned him into one. Afterward, he tells Maren and Lee they have to eat somebody "bones and all" for it to have a life-changing effect on them.

Maren and Lee hide who they are from everybody who isn't a cannibal. Before meeting Lee, Sully (Mark Rylance) falls for Maren, but she never reciprocates the feelings, remaining cautious. However, Maren completely opens up to Lee and has nothing to hide. That's why Maren's first time eating someone "bones and all" is when she eats Lee at the end of the film. In the romantic context, this could refer to sharing love with someone where both involved accept each other completely for who they are, "warts and all," just like Maren and Lee.

What Is Bones & All's Road Trip Is Really All About?

It Is About Lee & Maren Finding Home & Identity

The movie's road trip starts with Maren searching for her mother. However, the journey has a messy ending when her mother tries to kill her. Thankfully, Maren and Lee's trip across the United States Midwest is more significant to the movie's meaning. One of the main themes of Bones and All is identity, specifically how these two young characters are figuring out who they are in this highly complicated world. The concept of home is essential for their identities for different reasons.

Maren is on a journey of self-discovery and figuring out who she is without her father in her life anymore, and part of that process is finding a place to call home. She accomplishes this goal when she and Lee settle down at the film's end. Lee is constantly visiting his younger sister back home. It's symbolic of how someone's home is always a part of them, whether because of family, memories, values, or something else.

The Midwest setting also ties into a universal message about identity. The messages in Bones and All can apply to any group discriminated against. Feeling different from others is a universal emotion, but knowing others view someone differently might lead to that person covering parts of themselves up. The American Midwest has lots of prejudice and hatred toward marginalized communities. That's why Bones and All's setting being there is purposeful. Many people in the LGBTQ+ community can relate to having to hide parts of themselves, similar to the cannibals in the movie, just like many other also communities can.

How The Changes Made From The Book Affect The Meaning

Based On The 2015 Novel By Camille DeAngelis

As with any movie adapted from a novel, changes will occur to serve the new medium. However, the important thing is to not lose the message along the way. In this case, the movie's message changes somewhat, as there were major changes made to the characters, relationships, and even the construct of cannibalism from the page to the screen. This allowed Bones and All to focus more on the coming-of-age plot and the romance between Maren and Lee.

The first major alteration changes the story's road journey. In the movie, Maren's father leaves her and gives her an address to find her mother. In the book, it is Maren living with her mother, and she leaves to find her father. The relationship between Maren and Sully is also different in the book, where he is not a mentor to her, but instead her grandfather, changing that dynamic completely. That also changes the idea of searching for family and identity, since she has family.

However, it is the role of cannibalism itself that . In the Bones & All movie, cannibalism is about showing love and finding acceptance for who they are, which Lee and Maren do with each other. It is when Lee is dying that he asks her to eat him to show the extent of their love. Because attraction causes hunger in the book, when Lee shows affection to Maren, she loses control, kills, and eats him. The movie is a romance, whereas the book is something darker.

Bones and All

R

Drama

Horror

Romance

Where to Watch

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Bones and All is a horror/romantic drama from director Luca Guadagnino starring Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet as two new cannibalistic lovers living on the fringes of society. When Maren (Russell) falls back into her compulsion to eat flesh at a slumber party, she is sent out on the run to avoid being arrested. She soon meets Lee (Chalamet), another "eater," just like her. The two begin an intense romance as they finally find someone who understands them - but unfortunately for them, they aren't the only eaters nearby.

Director

Luca Guadagnino

Release Date

November 23, 2022

Distributor(s)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , United Artists

Writers

David Kajganich

Cast

Chloe Sevigny , Timothée Chalamet , Taylor McKenzie , Michael Stuhlbarg , David Gordon Green , Mark Rylance

Runtime

130 minutes