"...all people are alone in some ways and some people are alone in all ways..."
I had trouble with this film two years ago. It was hard for me to reconcile the depiction of old maids and “ugly ducklings” with the idea that adhering to a patriarchal sense of beauty brings one freedom— it all felt so contradictory. But I think this rewatch has mended my line of thinking somewhat, because even though there is definitely a conversation to be…
It’s very depressing, really, to see how old age is viewed through a Hollywood lens. Cinema isn’t kind to any woman over the age of fifty :/
One thing I didn’t pay much attention to through all my rewatches in the past 4 years is how this film opens and closes with Theodore’s letters. The first one being an impersonal, distant version of him, a letter disguised as a form of intimacy and connection— but it’s all fake. We grow even more apart in this world despite its crowds of people and vast cityscapes, and the longing for something real is so overwhelming. Theodore embodies this longing so deeply, but, by his last letter, the beautiful words he writes ring true because he’s lived them.
Spike Jonze, please pay for my therapy bills.
