Every single day, multiple people find this blog by googling various quotes from movies or novels that I've written about here. I love that. First, because it means I'm not totally psychotic for frantically writing such quotes down as they strike me. Second, because it means that movies and novels mean a great deal to people.
C. S. Lewis once said, "We read to know we're not alone." I think the same can be said for movies. I also think Lewis' sentiment is truer than any of us are willing to admit. Sometimes we read or watch movies to escape, but deep down, aren't we all hoping for a certain connection with a character? I sure am.
One such character that people identify with is Nicole (played by Kirsten Dunst) from the movie Crazy/Beautiful. I wrote a post about that movie recently and people are googling this phrase as spoken by Nicole: "I still panic sometimes. Forget to breathe. But I know there's something beautiful in all my imperfections. The beauty which he held up for me to see. A strength that can never be taken away."
Crazy/Beautiful came out in 2001, but people are obviously still watching it and they apparently long for the same type of acceptance that Nicole felt when she spoke those words. I can just see people googling the phrase, then scratching it down in their journals, and then spilling their guts about how much they'd love to find somebody like Nicole did who will accept them flaws and all.
Another phrase people google regularly comes from the movie Elizabethtown, uttered by a character named Claire (also played by Dunst): "You and I have a special talent. And I saw it immediately. We're the substitute people. I've been the substitute person my whole life. I'm not an Ellen [a co-worker Drew was into]. I never wanted to be an Ellen. And I'm not a Cindy either…I like being alone too much. I mean, I'm with a guy who is married to his academic career. I rarely see him and I'm the substitute person there. I like it that way. It's a lot less pressure."
I've written a lot about this movie already, so I won't rehash it here. But I'll just ask, who hasn't been a substitute person at some point?
I say google away, and journal away, and use movie and novel quotes as a jumping off point. Sometimes script writers and novelists are more willing to explore humanity more honestly than we do during every day conversation because the characters are fictional. But they are anything but nonexistent. In reality, they are us.
