We stumble, we fall, we dust ourselves off, and it’s not at all graceful. When it comes to movies I very rarely feel as if the characters portrayed could ever be real or even relate to me. They are too perfect, too nice, too everything…In my opinion there isn’t a woman out there that hasn’t felt completely overrun by the world at some point…or felt as though they are left to fend for themselves when even their friends can’t reach them. Yes, relationships help, but the relationship with yourself is one of the most important relationships of all.
Here are a few movies in our collection that capture the stumbling bits surprisingly well:
Adrift, thirty, and recently single Lola (Greta Gerwig) struggles to come to terms with a life made a bit more ordinary than she expected after her fiancé calls off their wedding plans. She seeks help from her friends to get her through, but her desperation creates more problems as she slowly unravels and threatens to pull them into her chaos. Only Lola has the power to move on and truly make her life her own. Lola Versus called to me on so many levels and it was refreshing to see the life of a thirty year old in film who still doesn’t have it all figured out.
One minute Sarah (Lizzy Caplan) is moving in with her boyfriend and the next he’s proposing to her at his rock show. Overwhelmed by it all she moves out and shortly moves into the arms of another man. While balancing this new found life and unexpected romance, Sarah’s sister, Beth (Alison Brie), is planning a wedding. Thus begins a power struggle between the sisters on the importance of family and the relationship we have with ourselves and others. Save The Date was a bit sweeter then I was expecting, but I still enjoyed how it embraced real life issues and confronted the sacrifices we sometimes have to make.
When I first started watching the HBO series Girls I wanted to hate it, but I was completely surprised by how utterly real it is and how much I enjoyed its rawness. It’s a bit awkward and depressing, but I have to admit I’ve known so many girls in my own life that can easily be plugged into these roles. Girls that struggle despite their education, despite their upbringing, and have had to come to terms with how completely unfair reality can be. Watching the girls fail is just like watching my friends and I fail and yet we find our way back to something…maybe completely different than what we thought.
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