Review of Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) by Angel L — 07 Apr 2010

I really seem to be blown away when a simple Hollywood story is elevated to another plane thanks to the work of a great, great director. Witnessing Coppola as a pure storyteller, a craftsman, was wonderful because at no time did his style take over and at no time did the sweetness of the movie overdose either and it's all because his style was guiding it along like a lover. Why does the movie work so well?

I love that it's about the wish of going back and re-doing everything. About erasing regret, about screwing those we had wanted, about having all the knowledge we know now back then, and about re-living our youth. There's something feminist about it being a woman who didn't go back to simply get wrapped up in what she had long thought to be a socially arranged marriage or a total mistake. Maybe it was. Maybe she should've said fuck it and moved to Utah with a weird beat poet. Yet when the moment comes that she realizes that her regrets aren't worth it and that her kids are what made those regrets, her marriage, her life, work, that's when the magic takes over, and it's wonderful. She just needed to dream that her life could've taken another course.

Maybe these are the thoughts that I"m going through right now. I can imagine others having them as well. Yearning for that different path. Re-doing it all. Though we know at the end of our dreams that we couldn't have done it any different, to stray so far from our path, because by doing so it would conflict with who we really are. It's true that we decide our own fate but isn't it weirder that we can't escape that fate which we plotted out for us?