Fables of the Reconstruction
It's a new year, so that means time for change, right? These
movies at least try for new beginnings and fresh starts ...
By Jim Emerson
Special to MSN Movies
Life is a process of continually reinventing yourself, so it seems natural
that one of our favorite myths should be the cyclical rebirth associated with
the changing of the calendar year. The shriveled, decrepit guy with the long
beard, robe and cane (or scythe) is booted out onto the dark, cold streets and
magically replaced by a fresh, rosy, newborn-naked bouncing baby at the stroke
of midnight every Dec. 31/Jan. 1. Look, it's the new year! And it's so
cute! Surely, anything is possible!
Then again, we know that this annual ritual is based on pathetically
transparent illusions. Nobody's really starting over. We're only getting older.
And your "I'm-Beginning-a-New-Life" diet and fitness regimen? Well, January is
the peak month for gym membership, and then it just peters out as people get
distracted by reality. And, you know, people never really change. They
just eventually reveal their true natures. Once an addict, always an addict ...
Wow, that's depressing. So, let's instead look on the sunny side, shall we?
The movies are replete with inspirational tales of redemption ... and stabs at
redemption ... and miserable failure. Sorry. That's just the way it works out
sometimes. They say the difference between comedy and tragedy is where you end
the story -- whether the promise of the "new beginning" comes at the beginning,
the middle or the end. Let's fast-forward now through some cinematic varieties
of redemptive experience, or what we might call Fables of the Reconstruction ...
Forgetting the Past
Is your past weighing you down? Got
troubles that seem to follow you wherever you go? Forget it! That's what Jason
Bourne (Matt Damon) has done, though not terribly successfully, in
three propulsive blockbusters: "The Bourne Identity," "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum." Like a "Blade Runner" Replicant (and with almost as much strength
and stamina), Jason thinks he has been living one life, only to find out he had
another one he doesn't know about -- and his memories are not his own. Leonard
(Guy Pearce) has a rather more extreme problem in "Memento": He not only can't remember his past, he also can't
remember a couple minutes ago. Talk about "living in the present." Every moment
is a new beginning. And like the Russian mobsters in David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises," the most significant events of
his life are recorded on his skin.
Fixing the Past
Humans have a tendency to believe that
they can fix the mistakes of yesteryear by re-enacting them in the present. So,
John Rambo can go back and win the war in Vietnam -- or Marty McFly can
literally go "Back to the Future" to set the past aright. But the most
haunting and shattering evocation of this urge comes from Scottie (James Stewart) in Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo." He is so devastated at the loss of his amour
Madeleine (Kim Novak) -- who is suicidally throwing herself into the
waters beneath the Golden Gate Bridge the first time he sets eyes upon her --
that he can't envision going on without her. So, when he meets Judy (also
Novak), who bears a notable resemblance to Madeleine, he shapes her into the
image of his lost love through force of will, snuffing out the real "Judy" in
the process.
Growing Up
When you were a child, did you speak as a
child, understand as a child, think as a child? Me, too. But when you grow to be
a man, you're supposed to put away childish things. The Bible doesn't say what
you're supposed to do when you grow up to be a woman, but if recent relationship
comedies are any indication, your mission in life is to find a guy, hook up with
him, and mold him into somebody else: "I love you! Now change to suit me!" (See
Fixing the Past above.) The big choice offered the male is usually between the
woman (sex, love) and his friends (not sex, love). This is what Hollywood calls
"growing up," and it can be found in bad movies ("You, Me and Dupree") and good ones ("Shaun of the Dead," "Wedding Crashers," "Knocked Up" -- even, to a lesser extent, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"). "Superbad" and "Juno," although they are about much younger
characters, are actually a little more sophisticated about it: Both sexes behave
badly in some respect, and the solution is not to "change" so much as it is to
forgive and accept. All these movies end with the (re-)united couple, their bond
stronger than ever for the test it has survived, facing a new, if uncertain,
future -- together.
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