"Last Chance Harvey"

Perhaps this was the feeling the writer was hoping to elicit, but geeesh! I felt like I was watching someone I loved die a sad, painful death for the first 50 minutes. Maybe its because Dustin looks strikingly similar to my beloved Uncle Tom.. but Harvey was breaking my little heart. To watch this man obsess, awkwardly shuffle around his heart so as to avoid realizing it, to be so uncomfortable in himself that he can hardly stand being alone while his deep aches surface as "distant" "incapable of feeling" and sadly continues to isolate him. brehh.. how very sad that the world is full of aching people, awkwardly shuffling around each other to avoid themselves and even happiness, to an extent.

For some reason I feel the need to write about this movie. Why? I don't know.. because so much was being said with few words. I would hope all people would see these simple truths I picked up on, but I am taking this tiny little corner of the world wide web to process a few things from this movie I only watched because my roommate had it in the DVD player when I got home and sat down to eat.


-that sometimes people need to lose that very thing they're hanging on to.. that one single, unsatisfying, cold, inanimate object or idea or career or relationship to which they're desperately clinging, in order to find freedom.. that will allow them to discover true happiness. hard.. so hard.

-ok ok, there may be the rare occasion in which a man actually had a heart attack or something nearly fatal occurred which prevented him from calling you or showing up or following through. such was the case in this movie, but I hold strong to the fact that 98% of the time, you're just getting blown off. it sucks.. and it shouldn't happen but its true and it does.

-"he's in stationary? I love stationary." that we women-folk have the occasional tendency to cling to any random given fact about potential man that might make him the perfect man for us. So the line "oh computers... not stationary" is much more than a comment, it is a big let-down because the solitary proverbial stationary has been taken away.

ah.. that people are hurting. of course we know this.. but this movie flashes it boldly in front of us again.. the most difficult people to be around, to love, to understand.. are those who probably need all it (love, hugs, compassion, understanding, grace) the most.... i hate this fact, but it is so entirely true. I hope people who watch this movie get that if they didn't already. if we could all just understand each other, the stories, who we are and how we got here, we'd all be a little less angry and a little more open to loving and a lot happier. "you see the lines upon my face, tell you the story of who I am, so many stories of where I've been and how I got to where I am. But these stories don't mean anything, when you've got no one, to tell them to, its true..." Brandie Carlile "The Story"

I guess Harvey didn't "figure it out in time," to save his younger years, given the divorce and years of misery, but how is it that when he's in his 50's.. err 60's, when he loses his job, has almost completely lost his daughter, he figures it out- what matters, how to fight for it.. how to take the chance..... even when his job, his only almost-quasi-triumph is re-offered to him, he finally sees its unworthiness, its inability to provide him happiness if not the opposite and denies it. why does it take so long for people to figure it out?? i guess pride? pain? confusion.. ignoring your conscious? i guess its easier to bury disappointment, hurt, pain then it is to look it in the eyes, dance with it a while, and gracefully step out of the ball of misery before it becomes the dance of your life at which you're hiding in the corner.. scared, unhappy, and lonely.... with an empty dance card.

And the hard, cold reality of broken hearts.. my favorite quote of the movie, "you see, I think what it is.. is.. i'm more comfortable with [used to] being disappointed... i think i'm angry with you for trying to take that way."

Good movie, unexpected thoughtful evening...