This past week, Hannie and I went to see the movie, La La Land. I had heard it was a musical, and in my mind I pictured Moulin Rouge. However, it proved to be much more.
La La Land began innocently enough. A man and a woman, each with their own artistic goals.
Golly, it could have been the Kennedy family up there on screen. Auditions. Belief in purity of art. The angst of rejection. It almost felt too real.
It all came down to the question: is the dream really worth it? The auditions. The nervousness. The rejection. The belief that someday I can make it big. Is the mundane, tortuous life that accompanies chasing the dream...is it worth it all?
Not too long into the movie and the meet-cute happens. The aforementioned man and woman meet and fall in love.
It was beautiful. A little song, a little bit of dance, some stardust.
It was the kind of moment that I think every woman dreams of. A romantic scene with a soundtrack in the background and stars. Lots of stars. Our hearts melted as the actors danced across the screen.
All seemed to be going well, and I think I assumed I knew where the movie would end. But there was a major turning point, and each of the actors was presented with an option that would lead to the fame and success that they so desperately craved.
One problem: the choice would lead them down separate paths.
And they chose to follow those separate paths and pursue their individual dreams.
Fast forward five years. They both had everything they wanted. So much fame. So much money. So much success. And the woman? She even had the family.
One problem. She didn't have the family with the leading man. Don't get me wrong--she had a nice-enough looking husband, and her home and car were to die for. And her face was plastered all over movie posters.
And even she didn't think anything was wrong, until she unexpectedly ran into the man that she had loved five years earlier, and their lives (both hers and his) flashed before all of our eyes.
We saw that they could have had it all. She could have had fame...although it would have been less fame. He could have had money and success...but it would have been less money and less success.
But in the end, they would have had what they each wanted, they would have reached their goals together, and they would have had each other.
And Johannah and I sat there, in stunned silence and disbelief, recognizing that their individual pursuits of fame and money meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
And Hannie spent the next 30 minutes crying. Such a beautiful life and beautiful dreams, all thrown in the garbage for selfish pursuits.
I would never have imagined a movie like this to come out of Hollywood. After all, aren't actors and musicians always the ones who actually do pursue their dreams, and have it all in the end?
It was a beautiful, worldly reminder of what is truly important in life. Finding someone you love, reaching for the stars together, and in the end, finding that complete happiness. It requires sacrifice on both ends--something that the world doesn't preach very often or very loudly. It's not the most glorious road, and it's not the easiest, but in my mind (and in the mind of the writers of La La Land), it is, indeed, the best.
La La Land began innocently enough. A man and a woman, each with their own artistic goals.
Golly, it could have been the Kennedy family up there on screen. Auditions. Belief in purity of art. The angst of rejection. It almost felt too real.
It all came down to the question: is the dream really worth it? The auditions. The nervousness. The rejection. The belief that someday I can make it big. Is the mundane, tortuous life that accompanies chasing the dream...is it worth it all?
Not too long into the movie and the meet-cute happens. The aforementioned man and woman meet and fall in love.
It was beautiful. A little song, a little bit of dance, some stardust.
It was the kind of moment that I think every woman dreams of. A romantic scene with a soundtrack in the background and stars. Lots of stars. Our hearts melted as the actors danced across the screen.
All seemed to be going well, and I think I assumed I knew where the movie would end. But there was a major turning point, and each of the actors was presented with an option that would lead to the fame and success that they so desperately craved.
One problem: the choice would lead them down separate paths.
And they chose to follow those separate paths and pursue their individual dreams.Fast forward five years. They both had everything they wanted. So much fame. So much money. So much success. And the woman? She even had the family.
One problem. She didn't have the family with the leading man. Don't get me wrong--she had a nice-enough looking husband, and her home and car were to die for. And her face was plastered all over movie posters.
And even she didn't think anything was wrong, until she unexpectedly ran into the man that she had loved five years earlier, and their lives (both hers and his) flashed before all of our eyes.
We saw that they could have had it all. She could have had fame...although it would have been less fame. He could have had money and success...but it would have been less money and less success.
But in the end, they would have had what they each wanted, they would have reached their goals together, and they would have had each other.
And Johannah and I sat there, in stunned silence and disbelief, recognizing that their individual pursuits of fame and money meant nothing in the grand scheme of things.
And Hannie spent the next 30 minutes crying. Such a beautiful life and beautiful dreams, all thrown in the garbage for selfish pursuits.
I would never have imagined a movie like this to come out of Hollywood. After all, aren't actors and musicians always the ones who actually do pursue their dreams, and have it all in the end?
It was a beautiful, worldly reminder of what is truly important in life. Finding someone you love, reaching for the stars together, and in the end, finding that complete happiness. It requires sacrifice on both ends--something that the world doesn't preach very often or very loudly. It's not the most glorious road, and it's not the easiest, but in my mind (and in the mind of the writers of La La Land), it is, indeed, the best.
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