Meet in the Middle
# May or may not contain spoilers about the movie. If you're ever going to watch (which I really think you should), please don't read. :)
Starring Irish actress, Eve Hewson, whom I absolutely adore, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the movie follows an incredibly imperfect single mother trying to raise her troublesome teen son in Dublin, Ireland. She forgets his birthday, so she picks up a damaged guitar from a dumpster truck, gets it fixed to give it to him, but he rejects the gift. She decides to make use of it instead, and starts taking lessons from JGL.
I love music and I love realistic movies that showcase human lives and relationships without dramatising them. We're all trying to survive and make it to the next day, everyday. Sometimes trying to find a bit of joy here and there. That's all we have in the end, anyway.
This movie ends up combining elements of everything I love. Has some really adorable original music (Meet in the Middle is going to be on repeat for days), characters that are more like me than I thought they would be, and just a really sweet story at its heart. I thought the story was going to end with a relationship between Flora and Jeff, but they don't even meet.
Instead, the movie feels like an ode to motherhood, and also to all the people just trying to find themselves and figure things out. You'd think you wouldn't be able to relate to Flora because she's a single mother in her 30s who made a couple bad decisions and has a son, but turns out she's just as scared and clueless as the rest of us. She's trying to carve out her own narrative, make her life amount to something, but ironically, her life gets in the way. She's lost and just doing what it takes to make ends meet and survive, because what else can you do?
For all her imperfections, bad decisions, vulgarity, and the occasional downright cruelty, she's headstrong and determined to make things work out. She's fiercely protective of Max. She's a woman of her word. Not once in the movie does she ever abandon her life or responsibilities, no matter how difficult it gets. Instead, she realises that she's been a bit of a dick, and starts to get better. Improves, really, for her son. And for herself.
It helped that she had a guitar teacher that she thought was attractive, but even then, she was pushing through for herself and her son. Not for anyone else.
I just wanted something easy to watch as I ate suhoor before I got back to my lectures. I wasn't expecting too much, and had no idea who John Carney was going in. Apple's never failed to disappoint with the content they produce, but still.
Instead, by the end of the movie, I was crying and laughing because I was happy for the characters. I was personally invested, and the movie pulled at all my emotional chords. Been a while since a movie's done that.
This is the type of movie I reckon I ought to have watched with someone else while cuddled up. I think that's mostly why I cried a little, because it made me miss you. You would've liked this one, me thinks.
For all the times I've yelled at you and blamed you, I still miss you exactly the same. Perhaps a little more than I originally imagined, because I guess this time it's permanent. This time, you might really be gone.
Mix a bit of nostalgia and attachment and pair it with late hours and a good movie, and you've got the perfect emotional cocktail. That sort of makes it sound like I don't miss you under other circumstances, which is simply not true.
But hey, that's what life is like, I guess. Hard to replace people when you've got such strong memories and had (what I hoped was) a strong, unshakeable connection. I mean, isn't that why we kept going around in circles? At least I know that's why I did it.
I'm musing when I ought to be sleeping because the song reminded me of you. If you ever stumble upon this post, I hope you at least check the lyrics out. It's rather different from everything else I've ever shared with you, but I think it's more like one of those bittersweet parting gifts? Yes, think of it as a gift from me. For you to keep for as long as the memory of me stays alive in your brain.
I, on the other hand, have immortalised you in my writing, so I'm never going to lose this. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
Funky feelings. I'm not necessarily sad or upset. I think just a little disappointed because this could've been quite perfect. Such a shame I'm not at all what you want.
Can you do something for me? If our paths were to ever cross again, which I don't think they ever will, can you promise to at least consider starting over one last time? We can let each other in on the secret of our history, but I think we'll be different people then. A clean slate. I'd like to proper get to know you one day.
I'd like to try again if you'd like to try again.
Take care.
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| "and when you miss them, pray for them." |
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