The One Who

1. Got away.

2. You never got over.

3. You love unrequitedly.

4. Define, for you, the word "love."

5. You love till the end.


It seems to me that these are the types of love that appear in movies. These taxonomies play out in different ways; for instance there are many reasons for the ones getting away. Sometimes the love was at the wrong time, and sometimes the love itself was wrong (this is the common result of adulterous love stories). I would say that #2 and #3 get the most play, because #1 leads to #2, and #3 is the proximate cause of #2. Everything revolves around #2 actually. #4 and #5 may appear to be the happy ending types of movie love, but they are not necessarily so. If you thought so--ah, how idealistic and naive you are, to think that the person who defines love for you is the person you love till the end. Not even the love of your life may be the person you love till the end of your life. And if they are #4 and #5, you'll never get over them. Back to #2.

I recently saw the movie "Once," and saw tonight the movie "Becoming Jane." I liked both. Both films had different combinations of the five types of The One Who. Both are honest without being harsh, and romantic without being maudlin.

"Once" was charming. Glen Hansard (The Guy) and Marketa Irglova (The Girl) are excellent. The look of desperate loneliness and longing on The Guy's face is heartbreaking, as is The Girl's look of resignation. I liked that it was a musical without being weird and break-out-into-song-and-spirit-fingers. It made sense; The Guy was a busker, The Girl his accidental co-songwriter. They sing to each other and sing to themselves, but only when it's natural to sing. And the songs were pretty and affecting.

"Becoming Jane"---oh, how I wish Anne Hathaway (Jane Austen)could hold onto her English accent consistently. But she has very expressive eyes and a face that's believably altered by emotion. And she has great chemistry (who wouldn't?) with my new crush, James McAvoy (Tom Lefoy). I've liked McAvoy since Bright Young Things and Inside I'm Dancing, but he really shines here (as he did in The Last King of Scotland). He's just magnetic and sexy!

The film was surprisingly moving in the end, and almost believable (even if it fudged with real history) because of its emotional honesty. And I'm just a big Austen fan. Not big enough to conduct my personal life by Austen. But I enjoyed this fictionalized, cinematized version of Jane Austen's life. I'm not convinced that Austen needed to have this love in order to write so well about love (seriously, she had to elope and make the ultimate sacrifice for love?), but I could believe, for two hours, that she did.