Review – Made for Each Other
My Grandma Kelly had a voracious appetite for reading, especially detective novels. She was also pretty good at forgetting them, and would often get halfway before realizing, she’d already read that book. I am also a voracious reader and watcher of movies. I am good at forgetting. Looking through IMdb, I’ll think – I probably watched this movie already, or I definitely have, but now that I am fully out of the closet about being a movie maker, might be good to watch again. Often all I really have is an impression, good or maybe not so good. So the idea of doing reviews is intriguing, maybe over time my tastes will change and that would be fun to observe. I started a list of movies not worth watching twice, so I’ll be sure to not accidentally rewatch shite more than one more time, since I’m a good forgetter, again like my Grandma. The companion to my do not watch twice list will be my review series, where I discuss movies I would be ok with watching again.
Tonight I rewatched Made for Each other with Jimmy Stewart and Carole Lombard. What a smaltzy, eerily compelling movie, with nuance where one might least expect it, a definite time capsule, in acting technique at least. The main characters show a lot of deference to elders and authority, but then again a wild capricious self trust, getting married after only knowing each other for 4 days or whatever. Back when marriage was (supposedly) a bigger deal than it might be now. So there’s an interesting contrast within the main characters, they follow their hearts without hesitation and yet assign their fates to the “wisdom” of elders.
Starts out as a sort of romantic comedy that swings dark to drama, tragedy and finally a thriller. Over the top save the baby climax, goofy airplane sequence (who flies a biplane through a winter storm for 2000 miles in an open cockpit without at least a scarf to cover his face? An actor, that’s who. But although Jimmy’s performance is a little clumsy at the start, he and Lombard make some magic happen here, they really pulled me in even as the crew is practically dragging the sets and props around before the scene have even finished, metaphorically. With the exception of Jimmy and Carole, everything in this movie is a finger pointing to the moon, eg whispy puffs of character, scenics and story. Just a silvery fog for these two young wizards to stand in front of and shine.
And pray like Carol Lombard. She didn’t make any deals or even plead, she just passionately stated what makes her happy, what she wants and how could any divinity deny her sweet request, she’s so clear that she deserves happiness and really it’s quite simple, just spare my baby so my husband and I watch him become a man and how much joy that would bring. That was the basis of her request. Her god was all about the joy, that is what her universe runs on.
I am reminded of Swami, he said when you speak to god, be as a child and demand your needs be met, because the parent is supposed to serve the child. The universe is waiting to do backflips for us. A baby bird in a nest isn’t shy, she calls to her mother for food, food! We must expect to be cared for, more than we ever have as an actual child, even if the caring of my parents was incomplete, missing something crucial, I can easily provide myself. This missing chunk, self assurance perhaps, how is that instilled? My father and mother didn’t really know exactly, perhaps everyone must claim their self assurance. In any case, this is perhaps the only block that keeps the universe from flowing into my dreams and instantiating them. The absolute expectation that my every need will be met if I can just allow. That I am deserving of my full human potential. I love being up late and writing about this, I love realizing that all I have to do is pray like Carole Lombard and let the universe come on in, pray as if the universe is only waiting for me to explain clearly what I want. What together we can create.
Last thing. Imagine a world, a utopia and then do a meditation project where deliberate creators live this world, feel this world, not only the joy and appreciation of this world but the joy in knowing that we are creating the world and however the creation shows up, we’re powering it along. I don’t need anyone to agree to this scheme, I could dream the team. Every evening and morning I want to ask for the most outrageous excellence to show up, crazy brilliant utopias and bigger than life dreams. Just feel the best feelings as I imagine these freaking fabulous worlds. I have the ultimate wish granting talisman, what now, baby? I can start asking and revise until I’m super tuned.