Movie Love

(This is reflection on last week’s writing workshop which was themed Movie Love.)

Love in the movies is so many things.

When I close my eyes and try to think back to my first experiences with love in film, I think about scenes of impractical romance, unending passion, even extreme misery.

I think about love in the time of famine and disease, in the midst of depression and deep addiction.

Love in the movies is one of those things that shows us just how big and lofty it can be. Expansive in every way we can imagine, and in all of its grace and humanness, still fragile. Still complicated.

Love can shrink down to nothing and still stay alive in the harshest conditions.

Movie love reminds me of moments lost in time – all the different types of love experiences floating around and waiting to be recalled by us.

I remember the ache in my throat as I held back tears that wouldn’t stay down long enough for Ryan Gosling to finish his mini monologue about love in The Notebook.

The horror of Glenn Closes’ unhinged obsession with love in Fatal Attraction, and love complicating the deal in True Lies and Indecent Proposal.

I remember love being the thing that made Ariel want to become human, and it was love that prevailed in Step Mom, The Family Stone, Dirty Dancing, Finding Nemo, Good Will Hunting, The Princess Bride, Forrest Gump.

Seeking love.

Finding it in the middle of chaos.

Remembering love.

Letting love go.

Holding onto love.

Feeling it evolve.

Touching it, tasting it.

Being drawn to it.

Being afraid of it.

Being obsessed with it.

Real love, fake love, family love, clandestine love affair love, brotherly love, teenage love, baby love, lustful love, wholesome love, desperate love, quiet love.

Can’t breathe without you, love.

In the movies it’s all up for grabs and in last week’s workshop it was too.

And I’m so glad.