“But looking beautiful isn’t, I think, as important as feeling beautiful”
A plot that breathes life into a film about mental illness and the healing power of love, this movie brings in such emotional death and enlightens the audience about an increasingly fragile and complex teen world.
The entire story majorly revolves around 2 characters, Violet and Theodore (or Finch) and their journey of friendship, love, happiness, and pain. This movie throws light on young people who often feel misunderstood, isolated, lost and in need of help.
The lead girl, Violet is pretty, popular, has a boyfriend and comes from a comfortable family. Finch who is popularly known as ‘The Freak’ in school because of his occasional erratic behavior is someone who is close to his sister, parents out of the picture and a rather different person. But that’s now their story begins.
Their story begins when Violet is standing on the edge of a bridge, deeply thinking if she should jump or not and Finch who was out for his morning run spots her, gently talks her out of it and gets her down. After that incident, their occasional hallway meets are rather awkward but none of them can deny the connection they had felt. Violet tries to move on from the connection she had with him but Finch doesn’t let her. That happens because Finch chooses Violet as his partner when their Geography teacher gives them an assignment before graduation to wander Indiana, seek out some significant locations and write a report on them.
Personally, there were few things to notice until this scene. First that no matter how a person looks from outside, no matter how many people it looks like they have there is always a battle going on inside them. Then it’s that we hear so much about a person, not knowing how true it is or isn’t we shouldn’t be too quick to judge and sometimes in the most unexpected of time we feel a connection with someone and we don’t know whether to be scared or grateful. Lastly, no matter how much we try to push those feelings away, try to deny the connection, it doesn’t just go away. It’s either our own heart throwing truth back to us or someone else making us see the reality.
The story continues and we see that Violet says that she won’t get in a car with him to go to any of those places. That’s because her sister died in a car accident and at the same place Violet was going to jump off at in the beginning.
And soon enough they work ways out and start on their assignment. Violet didn’t want to but in the end she did it anyway. Two wanders, that’s all he asked for. And they somewhere connect because they both have something holding them back. Violet with her sister’s death and Finch with his dark moods.
People don’t like messy, or different. But they fit.
The duo bond through these activities, logging local attractions like the highest point in the state, a backyard roller-coaster, a shoe-covered tree and an interpersonal chalk wall display. His affection encourages her to embrace life, while her presence provides him a tether to the living. However, as one of them ascends into the light, the other descends into a darker place. Because when you think you need someone, maybe the person needs you more.
Those places they went to became a source to locate their pain and put patches of brightness on them. The film revolves around healing and not being able to at the same time.
I won’t be explaining the plot because somewhere some scenes are better when seen and not explained.
But this movie shows us all the different realities of life. We see that somehow Violet was able to breakthrough and heal herself, every moment she was able to go back to herself and make herself alive. Finch on the other hand is happy but he is different. Violet tries helping him but she realizes that even when she is there for him it is his battle. This movie focuses on self-awareness and the basic reality that emotional health is a real thing.
“All the Bright Places” rests on the notion that you never really know what others are going through, that people who seem to have it all together on the outside might have a lot more going on underneath. Perhaps that’s not a novel, earth-shattering concept, but it’s one that’s as worthwhile as ever. And the film’s frank talk about mental illness, suicidal thoughts, physical abuse and family loss is so potent and necessary that it makes you wish Fanning hadn’t been saddled with a narration at the end, summarizing the themes. Young people are bright—they can handle these kinds of complex concepts.
There’s always a ending which hurts and that is how reality is. You need a breakthrough to get back to yourself while no matter how much you try you cannot change reality.
This movie was one remarkable example on mental illness awareness and emotional wellbeing. While the movie was spectacular it was the lessons it left behind that affected the most.
You see, Mental illness is never an easy journey. It impacts family and relationships and can be very personally overwhelming, so it’s important to ask for and get help because there is help out there. That’s the message that the film’s co-stars gave their viewers to take with them, as a result of the story’s heart-breaking ending. The ending happened maybe because Finch didn’t reach out or get the help he needed. And that’s what the movie tries to say. Its okay for you to be or feel this way. You just have to reach out.
This story of two teenagers was about having someone to hold, to love, to believe, to hope and to breakthrough. Because it’s moments we remember, not days.
There are bright places, even in dark times. We can be that bright place.
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