I think it reaches out to some people realistically. When I was 12 I had a mouth like they did. The ending of the movie is what got me the most; if someone had killed my brother when I was 12, I may have very well taken their life. I really might have. Most children would be afraid to do this, but these children all suffer neglect in some way.

Rudy always felt he was the inferior child, (as mostly was treated as such via parents and siblings) and resented his brother because of it. Until he lost his brother. That emotion and reaction is real. He moves in to forgive the boy who threw the molotov, but then the adoption of the other brother came through, and in the end - he just couldn't get past it. Where many children may have fantasized about it - it felt like a very natural, true reaction.

Then the chubby boy, realized he was fat and it was unhealthy. Then he lost his taste, lost the only reason to gorge. And he saw his parents and siblings eating themselves into their own grave and decided he was going to stop it. Yes, maybe that was a fantasy of someone, but I know to someone out there, they did it. Anyone worth their salt would have tried it.

And the girl, obviously, she basically had no man and her life, and hung out with boys (she doesn't know what she's missing :p) so naturally, she clings to the only male role model she had. It makes sense, and where I'll agree these where 'most extreme-case scenario' these reactions all felt real, and not like a fantasy, however to the degree that they where acted out. The fact that she just got naked in front of her male friend was a little over done, had she just come on to him, it would have been believable. But at least in the two boy's situations I found to be very real and down to earth. But that's just my opinion.

:)