Validated my beliefs
I enjoyed this movie, but as a 20-something Catholic woman, I couldn't help but think, yes, this completely validates my beliefs like people are to be loved, not used, marriage is permanent, divorce hurts children, etc. I practice my religion not because I'm brainwashed by a patriarchal church or because I'm scared of eternal hell fire, but because I believe we're made for love: to love, to be loved and that we won't be happy any other way. All of these moments just had me shaking my head:
"I get these flashes of clarity, brilliant clarity, where, for a second, I stop and I think, 'Wait, this is it. This is my life. I'd better slow down and enjoy it, because one day, we're all going to end up in the ground, and that will be it. We'll be gone. So I think we should *beep* Samantha Borgens
I mean, if you're an atheist, this is absolutely right. Dostoevsky said the same thing. But if she truly believes it, does she have any right to be upset with her mother for screwing a guy in front of her? If we're here for a short time and that's it, why shouldn't we chase pleasures, why should have any obligation to anyone but ourself?
"Everyone's parents are divorced. Big *beep* deal. You get over it."
"Your mom loves you. She never did anything to you."
Maybe our world would be a better place if people actually stuck to the most important promises they made. These two seem completely clueless about how much their divorce hurt their daughter, how it gave her a terrible view of love and cynical about possibility of finding lasting happiness.
"You know Flannery O'Connor? I know Flannery O'Connor. She said nothing needed to happen in a writer's life after they were 20. By then, they had experienced more than enough to last their creative life. So? So what's your point? My point is...I don't think you're experiencing enough."
"And it's because she's courageous in her life. She's promiscuous, Dad. It's not the same thing."
I happen to love Flannery O'Connor and I can tell you that she wasn't equating experience with drugs and sex. Rusty was right, Samantha was certainly more courageous when she gave Lou a chance instead of just "giving [herself] away to *beep* a**holes with infinitely lower IQs than [hers]." Lou's desire to know her from a completely unselfish place was the best part of this movie.
Also, I realize it's sadly realistic, but the way these characters view sex as something completely casual that is nothing more than pleasure, it ignores the body count that often follows (literally in abortion and also broken hearts/marriages/families).
"She's very married, as I recall. You're seeing her? I think I'm a good way for her to kill an hour after she drops her kids off at school."
I think most people would think that these *beep* buddies are one of the less problematic parts of this film, but how sad is it that this woman is so bored with her life that she needs this kind of escape. They're both using each other for different reasons and it seems to indicate the problem with so many of the relationships: using instead of loving. Rusty and Kate--obviously they cared about each other so it is too simplistic to say that they merely used each other, but he wanted experience and she wanted someone to fix her. She was clearly a broken individual and maybe he should have taken her desire to get in his pants as a red flag that she was looking for help and more than he could give her. And Samantha using these losers to fill a hole left by her parents' brokenness.
I get so tired of the stereotype that religious people are unintelligent, backwards, and deluded when the world doesn't seem to offer much more in the pursuit of happiness. After watching this movie, I couldn't help but remember these words from John Paul II:
“Faced with today's problems and disappointments, many people will try to escape from their responsibility. Escape in selfishness, escape in sexual pleasure, escape in drugs, escape in violence, escape in indifference and cynical attitudes. I propose to you the option of love, which is the opposite of escape.”