Good morning. See, one of my favorite movies is Waking the Dead, a 2000 drama directed by Keith Gordon, starring Jennifer Connelly and Billy Crudup. The screenplay, by Robert Dillon, is based on Scott Spencer's 1986 novel by the same name. It's an intense, fascinating, tragic love story packed with acting chemistry and witty writing.
Stay with me. This is not a mere film review, although that's hidden in here somewhere.
To me, the brilliance of Waking the Dead is the result of perfect casting; these two actors are so mesmerizing together, it's impossible to believe the result is merely a film. The first time I saw it, I never stopped to think, This is fiction. Rather, I was completely engaged. Whenever I see either one of these actors in a magazine or in another movie, I still think of that film, and I wonder about what it was like to create such a passionate, severely emotional beast.
My heart seeks out the depth, the sincere spirit, and the noise. And creations like this film bring me back to who I really wish to be.
Off the top of my head, some other films affected me this way as well -- The Judge, Into the Wild, Dances with Wolves, She's So Lovely, Maudie, The Four Feathers, Avatar, Cinema Paradisio, Chaplin, and Ray, to name a select few.
What do they all have in common? A startlingly unique, soulful edge, a mix of tragedy and love, and a fervor for all things passionate. The ache, the joy, the celebration of cavernous and mountainous life.
Amen.
Great music, an ancient landscape painting, or a soulful photograph will put me in this soulful place as well; I get lost in it, and it centers me in the present, reminding me that all we really have is the time and space surrounding us...right here, right now.
And that, to me -- the inescapable, precious moment when I realize how lucky I am to be feeling, living, growing, and alive -- is divine.
The moment is here. The moment is real. You and I are sharing this together.
The moment is...home.
Love,
C.A. MacConnell
