I saw the title come out before and thought it was another American-style campus romantic comedy. Later, when I saw the trailer, the scent of literature and art came out from the sensitive and lazy slow motion and the light blue of New York City. The melancholy picture seeps out. From the trailer to the whole film, the soundtrack is the highlight that has to be emphasized, and even rebalances the rhythm of the story and the mood in the shot a little overwhelmingly. After watching the whole movie, the lines are full of surprises, and the use of all these auxiliary elements really makes up for the lack of plot and editing to a large extent, and even makes the scattered plot development subtly match the protagonist’s nervousness and The sensitive and delicate inner world, in other words, this is the director's own inner and conscious reflections. A director's screen debut may be just to vent a backlog of emotions and thoughts that have been accumulated for many years. Fortunately, he found two good young actors.
After watching the entire movie, I searched the entire head of young American male actors, but I couldn't think of a person who could replace Haymer in the role of George. This British-born post-90s boy from London seems to have been accustomed to interpreting this kind of child character with a different inner and spiritual world beyond his actual age from the beginning of "Searching for Neverland". Similar to August Rush and Nigel in "Toast", George has a special talent and a sense of the world, introverted and complicated. But the difference is that what I want to portray more here is George's inner growth and thinking. I am a free thinking individual. George explained his behavior in this way. He is not withdrawn, but as he himself said, he was happy, open, curious, and now is not as good as before. He didn't hate it. He cared about the feelings of the teacher and his parents, so he had to participate in school activities, sorry to make the teacher angry, remembering the name of every classmate, and willing to blame a strange girl. He is talented and not lazy, so the school and teachers give him opportunities time and time again. He has a delicate perspective and unique insight, but, as he himself said, he encountered a motivation problem, not about school, but about his entire life.
The art teacher should be the person who understands George and his talent best, at least I think so. But art cannot leave the enthusiasm for life. A child who is indifferent to everything can't see his own inner desire and enthusiasm at all, just like the blank canvas in his dream. He always hoped that George could go a little further, see his heart clearly, see the hope of life, his years of confusion and confusion will disappear by then. The exit is only close at hand, but like a beast. George has a delicate and keen sense of cognition. Perhaps this stems from the unique or even more intense love of life deep in his heart. If he is not too passionate, how can he be so lost when he sees a distant disillusionment.
George's confrontation with homework, or school or even everything that was externally added to him, is a clear thread on the surface of the story, but this is definitely not the story of a genius boy from decadence to rise, but an adolescence. The boy with sensitive nerves and rich inner world discovers himself and the story of life. It's all about finding yourself and grow-up.
When he was young, George read a string of numbers about mortality, which established his understanding of life——We live alone, and we die alone. Everything else is just an illusion. He realized that compared with the irresistible fate of people eventually dying alone, everything was meaningless, including homework. When Unfortunately came out, I think the teacher was furious, but he was very serious. Because this horn was so drilled that it made him think of being unable to sleep in the middle of the night for many years, it also directly caused his endless confusion and negative emotions. I was depressed, he always said that. A child treats all living gods as clouds. What is the point of struggling in this social circle in a disciplined manner? He chose to live like this, being indifferent to everything. He kept drawing on the book every day, sitting in the dining room and reading a thin book of Camus. No one knew what he was thinking, and no one expressed his way. Understand, people think he is weird, he is indifferent, and feels good, until he meets Sally who seems cheerful, but also has a complicated heart. Destiny seems cold and ruthless, but it is so ingenious and magical, but I think George must have not realized it at the moment on the roof.
Sally's intervention in his life was a turning point when he started to re-recognize life. The growth of the two children in getting along with each other and the subtle changes in their friendship have naturally become part of the main line of the story. There are always people in life who can open their hearts when they first meet. The first afternoon Sally met George, she showed him all of her life, single mother, and her past. George took her to skip class and had a Woody Allen movie day. She let George into her circle, met new friends, and took him to the party. It seems that the children of two worlds are honest with each other. Until Sally told George one day, you are my only true friend and I need you. When George disappeared, trying to make up for the friendship between the two. We finally know that, in fact, Sally and George are the same. The two children who grew up in single-parent families were both lonely and sad inside. They can't see their lives clearly, are confused or even at a loss.
Sally's departure, the breakdown of the family and the strength of his mother made George finally realize the deep and strong love in his heart, and when this love is connected with the responsibility to the one he loves, it will break through loneliness. This is growing up. George started to do his homework and plan his future. He began to paint with heart, searching for the true self that the teacher requested, and putting all his cherished and fearless courage into his paintbrush. Love is the soul of art, just like Ben in "Sleepless in the Supermarket". When he closes his eyes, there is only her shadow on the blank canvas.
In fact, we work hard to live, not because we are going to die, maybe to make the life we love more powerful.
Sally let George finally see himself and his life clearly, I was nothing. I felt by nothing. You changed that. The night before leaving, he said what was in his heart. It was Sally who didn't see clearly, but everything is not important anymore. In the night in New York, Sally and George walked on the road holding hands. Before dawn, everything was not important. After today, we will each start another journey.
When the golden light spilled on Sally's face through the curtains, she lowered her head and said, I love you, too, all this is so beautiful. George sat quietly in the park, in the bright sky and the early morning lights of New York, he let her go, but she made him no longer alone. You know we're gonna be together one day. We have to sort through our messed-up issues... It's a long life. No matter where the future is, life is very long, and everything is not over, waiting for us to sort through our messed-up issues, destiny Will eventually bring us back together. Between the two children, a promise about a lifetime, no matter what people and things they experience in the middle, they are already the end of mutual recognition.
I thought that everything should end here, and the graduation ceremony ended on the day of graduation. The story of the first love of two little people who didn't guess should have left a beautiful regret. Maybe this is the original ending of the director's story. Seeing this, I have begun to fantasize about the following story, which reminds me of "Missing Hate Early". Two people who have known each other since they were young, and who clearly love each other deeply, have been tossing for more than ten years, but they keep missing in the chase. Although the result is still good, the process is too painful. Maybe it will not even be able to fulfill the promise, the fate is too cruel. However, the true ending of the movie seems to be the focus of criticism, just like "The Little Thing of First Love", the deliberately arranged happy ending seems to be vulgar and redundant, destroying the originally brewing atmosphere. But if fate can be changed like a script, why bother yourself. Maybe the director just wants to make this story complete in his own work, not for the box office, nor for the taste of critics, which is actually quite good.
One shoulders the financial crisis of the family, and the other pursues independence and self-reliance. "What do you do next?" "I don't know." Isn't this the question Sally wanted to ask George. However, even if the end is a lonely end, in the process of dying, they are no longer alone. The moment the sky falls, what counts as the sky falls, let alone life?
Postscript: After waiting for four months, I finally couldn't bear it, and it took a lot of effort to find resources without subtitles on the Internet. After reading it, I'm still not enough, I know I will watch it again N times, silently stop the lines, and take down the OST. Anyway, all the children who have come from those confused days, who can understand the fear and courage that we once faced with life alone.
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