Ms. CoCoVanDerChic

I admit. A movie review seems out of place on a green etiquette blog. However as it is time to think about making resolutions for the New Year, perhaps you will see where I am going with this. This past Tuesday was a rainy dreary day and a change in plans led to seeing a movie that deeply touched me and shifted my mind.

I was drawn to the movie Young Adult because I simply adore Charlize Theron.  I find her a delightful combination of beauty, brains and mystique. I bashfully admit, I did not really know all that much about the movie. But I know I loved her in the movie Head in the Clouds.

This movie reversed the “Pretty and Pink” stereotype … the richies and those from the other side of the tracks. Not to belabor an old adage “all that glitters is gold” Well it is a lie. She had it all… Mavis … beauty, fame, and smarts, but she had a broken heart. Obsessed with her high school sweetheart, she was paralyzed. To the world she was just a pretty face, no one saw her pain inside. Appearing to be a successful writer, alcohol and a bittersweet sadness were her muses.

Mavis was lost in a world of labels. Homecoming queen, voted as having the best hair … always receiving external validation. She had little reason to look within. It all came so easily, so why not, she tricked herself into believing she could have it all with the blink of her eye. Yes at first glance, at a casual meeting, but when you look in her heart you can see it is quite dark.

In fact she is so lost in all the fame, that she has gone through life oblivious to the world around her. In fact her true sole mate, turns out to be a boy who had the locker next to her. Too busy admiring her reflection in the mirror in her locker, she never noticed him in high school. When they connect in a bar one night, she remembers him as a victim of a hate crime. Thought to be ‘gay’, he was brutally beaten by the so called ‘popular jocks’ and as a result permanently disabled. 

Their logic is miles apart, but they are close. Both are mislabeled. She the perfectly pretty successful city woman. He a disabled gay sexual misfit. They are both two brilliant and creative minds  calling out for love but too hung up on their appearance to find it.  In the end they do … but it is only through harsh rejection that they find acceptance.

The green nugget in this post is that we all have losses, hurt and pain. No one is immune to it … the grass is not always greener on the other side. We all come into this world and leave this world in the same way.