It's horrifyingly hot today so, after church, Z and I rented some movies and became complete couch potatoes for the afternoon.
The first movie, Broken English, is a Parker Posey film about a woman who feels like she "must be doing something horribly wrong" when it comes to love, but she just can't figure out what it is. Eventually, she ends up in Paris where an older man says to her: Most people are together just so they are not alone. But some people want magic. I think you are one of those people. She asks if there is anything wrong with wanting magic and he tells her no, but it just doesn't happen all the time.
I loved this movie because that same man, who is barely on screen at all, tells her she needs to love herself before anyone else can love her. I'd urge the screenwriter to add that, until the person you love loves him or herself, they're never going to be available to you the way you need them to be.
The second film, Chaos Theory, may be one of the best movies I've seen in the last year. The soundtrack is mostly a guy named Alex Dezen and The Damnwells, names I assure you I'll be looking up on itunes very soon, and it's shot in the Pacific Northwest which allows for some simply stunning shots. The heart of the story revolves around a man--played by Ryan Reynolds--who has devoted his life to making lists, being efficient, and planning for all conceivable outcomes only to experience a small disruption to his routine that has large repercussions.
I may watch it again before returning it to the video store--yes, I still go to one of those. I have a Netflix account, I get HBO, and I've been known to frequent those RedBox stands, but there is something so lovely about yards and yards of films waiting to be plucked off the shelf and discovered or revisited. I like knowing that, seemingly by chance, I may stumble across exactly what I need at any given moment just by choosing the right box from the shelf, bringing it home, and giving it my full attention. There's probably a metaphor for love in there somewhere, but I can't begin to even think about those rows of shelves, so for now let's stick to movies.
Chaos Theory featured a speech that I loved with a line in it that I wish everyone could live by. For now, I'm going to try to.
...it turns out that are few things more chaotic than the beat of a human heart. It's beating up, slowing down. Pretty face, flirty stares. It's always changing on what's happening to ourselves out there. It's an erratic son of a bitch. But underneath all of that bump-da-bump mess, there is in fact a pattern, the truth, and it's love. Most important thing about love is that we choose to give it, and we choose to receive it. Making it the least random act in the entire universe. It transcends blood, it transcends betrayal and all the dirt and makes us human.
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