I'm about to try something a little different here, as I find myself in a bit of a strange situation. As I said in my Avengers review, professional courtesy as a reviewer implies that I must write my reviews from a purely critical, analytic state. However, I also want to talk about some of my favourite, most well loved movies. Obviously I cna't review them, pre se, being so emotionally attached. So instead, I'm going to provide a written piece, discussing these films and the benefit they've had on my life in as spoiler free and critique free way as humanely possible.
It was pure chance that led me to hire these two movies again. A re-watching of Scrubs and a Pixies song. Two seemingly irrelevant, tiny details. However, watching Scrubs reminded me of Garden State, a movie I had not seen in many years and listening to the Pixies' Here Comes Your Man reminded me of the karaoke scene from (500) Days of Summer, a movie which at that stage I had already watched 6 times. So upon returning Scrubs, those two films found themselves at the top of my hire list. And then it was straight into the DVD player with (500) Days of Summer for my 7th viewing. 5DoS has always had a strange synergy with my life. The main character always rang a little too close to home for me. When I first viewed it, I saw it only as "finally, a movie with the bloke as a hopeless romantic". I felt his pain struggling against the tyranny of the world and Summer's emotionless realism. At the time, I was in a similar relationship and thus blinded to the true story at work. However, over multiple viewings, I began to realise that despite the entire film taking place from his point of view, this was not Tom's story. Nor was it Summer's. If anything, it is a morality tale about the dangers of close mindedness. It's Tom's steadfast belief that Summer is the "One" that drives her away. It's this close minded belief that leaves him shattered at her departure. But it is also Summer's stubborn refusal to see anything outside her pragmatic view on life that leaves her confused and lonely. We constantly see her looking lost and broken, torn between her heart and mind without realising it's possible to follow both. And it is through her growth at the conclusion that we realise what the film truly is about. Acceptance. Acceptance that we can't define life, or love, or fate. Acceptance that we can't let emotions and blind optimism rule our lives. Acceptance that we can't let fear of failure freeze us in place. Acceptance that we are all different, that what we believe true for ourselves won't be true for others. Whether or not Tom accepts this at the end is left open, but I think that's why the message remains so important. (SPOILERS) While Summer stumbles into commitment and happiness in love and comes to accept Tom's view along with his own, it seems to the audience that Tom will continue to endlessly pursue "The One", but we can only hope he has been left wiser from all that has come to pass.(END SPOILERS).
Garden State is a bit of a different beast. I was young when I first saw it, probably too young. I knew only that it was Zach Braff's feature film directorial/writing debut, and that it was shocking different to Scrubs. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie. I found it poignant and funny and strangely different to anything else I'd ever seen. However, I was so caught up in just how different it was to Scrubs, how strange it was to see Zach playing the straight man, that I missed what the movie was truly about. At it's heart, Garden State is a simple growing-up film. It's a film about family, about mental health, and about death. But there is so much more under the simple trappings. At its heart, Garden State is a celebration of life through the mirror of death and suffering. Every character in the movie represents a different aspect of the human condition. And separately, they are all broken individuals. Most of them are hooked on drugs, or booze, or sex. Andrew (Zach's character)'s father is so set on trying to make the world perfect and happy that he can't see all he is doing is making the world numb. Andrew himself, drugged out of his mind on Lithium and stupor, is shown different aspects of himself through the people that surround him. The childishness of his best friend, the laziness and immaturity of his rich friend, and most importantly, the acceptance of life for all its pain and sadness represented through Sam. Sam represents everything that Andrew has numbed out of his life. Fear, grief, love, excitement, naivety. The audiences perspective shifts almost to Sam's eyes after her introduction, and we suddenly see a change in all that surrounds her and Andrew. Is this change brought about by her presence, or has it always been there and we, like Andrew, have been numbed to it? There's no attempt at reconciliation, no tight, happy package at the end, because life isn't like that. It won't always be perfect, or happy, or safe, but who could possible want that? By flooding the audience with emotions at the same time that Andrew experiences them, we feel we have all grown along with him. We feel the shell of numbness falling away and we, like Andrew, feel like stepping out into the great meat grinder of life and trying to get few with as many body parts intact as possible. And the most important lesson we learn of all is, always take time to listen to the Shins.
Which leads me to my final point, and one that applies to both movies, and that is an expert use of music. Being a musician, and someone finely attuned to music, choice of music can make or break a movie for me. But the sign of true melding of film and music is being able to listen to the soundtrack and understand the movie as if you had just watched it, and that's what both films achieve. And that's all I have to say really. Just something to share. Perhaps there are films that mean something special to you. If so, please feel free to share the stories in the comments below.
