I remember hearing about this movie when it first came out. I was around 12 when that happened. I wanted to see the movie initially because of the combination of the title (it sounded very romantic to me) and the song Independent Love Song by Scarlet featured both in the movie and in the trailer.
For some strange reason I wasn't fully aware that Christian Slater was in the picture until I saw the movie. At the time I associated Christian Slater with the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and as a result thought of him as Will Scarlett. I didn't like Will Scarlett in the Robin Hood movie so I didn't like Christian Slater at first. This movie made me like him (although I'm sure that the time my preteen self would have said that I loved him. Ah the drama of preteen and teenage years but I digress).
In this film, Mary Stuart Masterson plays a successful career woman named Lisa Walker who has recently been promoted to vice president at her place of employment. In the opening sequence of the movie Lisa gets news that someone has passed away while she is on a business trip. Ever the professional she maintains her composure and carries on with her work. Once home she goes to feed her fish who happens to have died also while she was away and this single moment opens the flood gates for her. The next day while she is at work, she receives a mysterious and beautiful bouquet of flowers.
She is evidently a person who chooses to question and work at mystery rather than accept that someone has given her a lovely gift for no apparent reason. I can't say I entirely blame her for being suspicious but I confess I am slightly bothered that she doesn't seem to even try to appreciate the gift. Eventurally she finds out that the mysterious flowers come from the mysterious floral shop delivery man Lewis played by Christian Slater. With Lewis she slowly blossoms (pardon the pun) from demanding order and reason behind everything and being suspicious to just allowing herself to feel and experience things at face value.
Things get complicated when she is faced with revealing more of her painful past to Lewis and initially avoids it. Lewis reveals to her early on that he has experienced significant heartbreak in his past. Lisa's past as it turns out is extremely painful and her wounds are much deeper than she probably realized until she was faced with a potential "happy ending" of sorts with Lewis. The question is can she overcome her painful past and allow herself to love and be loved by Lewis?
I personally don't love dramatic pictures when you come across characters where everything that can go wrong goes wrong or they are so damaged that it seems impossible that they can ever be even slightly healed. As I said in my introduction to my blog, life has enough pain and trouble without adding to it with unusually strong drama in films.
This movie does an excellent job of presenting a believable dramatic story that while heavy isn't cumbersome and isn't annoying. Everything that the characters do seems logical and not simply a plot device. Obviously I can't imagine going through what Lisa goes through and hopefully most people can't.
On the other hand Lewis's heartbreak seems more relatable. What might not be as relatable in Lewis's case is how he reacts to his heartbreak. Lisa becomes understandably "frozen" by her past and shuts down as a result. Lewis chooses to "overcome" his heartbreak as much as he can while still retaining the positive aspects related to his situation. Both of their respective reactions are understandable.
When I first watched this picture I didn't understand anything about that. I couldn't get why Lisa acted the way she did throughout the picture. I particularly didn't like the ending.
Thankfully, as an adult watching this picture, I have since gained understanding and appreciation. The actions of Lisa make sense even if I can't relate. The actions of Lewis also make sense. I appreciate that I haven't experienced the things that these characters have experienced. Things could have been worse but they are still pretty heavy.
Two things that I have retained from first watching this picture as a preteen to watching this picture as an adult are a continued love of flowers particularly of the beautiful Sterling roses (according to the movie the only naturally thornless roses) and adoration of Christian Slater as Lewis. He is so wonderfully believable and warm and caring. He's flawed in his own ways but his determined spirit makes him perfect especially for Lisa. We could all hope that we have at least one respective "Lewis" in our lives who doesn't give up on us no matter what whether it is a friend, significant other, or family member.
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