Begin Again: We’re All Lost Stars

Can a song save your life?

Ummm, I’m not sure exactly where and what I should begin. But first thing first, about Keira Knightley and her should-have-sung-a-song-a-long-time-ago angelic voice, she is clearly one of the most talented actresses I’ve ever laid my eyes on; this is magical because you can never get to see her do such amazing singing performances and bring out her emotionally dramatic parts simultaneously anywhere but in this film. Oh, Keira, aren’t you the charmer? Apologies for not talking about Adam’s performances as he’s obviously a professional singer (and a great actor.) For the first in a very long time, I can truly say I’m in love! This film has mesmerized my entire two hours, getting me caught again in what I couldn’t even have realized was gone: passion.

In the film, it talks about how people who try to light up the dark become lost stars. It is quite cliche, though, when it comes to being an artist, I guess. In my case, everyone could become lost stars because not only do artists try to find themselves, but also the rest of us. We tend to get lost, all of us do. But we’re so eager to find a way home no matter however long it takes us. As obviously as it seems, life can be banal from time to time and it urges us to turn it into something unjaded. And as we are easily confounded by it, we are likely to do whatever it takes to revive our seemingly dead life.

Given that, what could possibly be a better way to bring light to the dark than just coasting along and doing nothing about it? Begin Again has given us such brilliant — yet very difficult to do — ideas in this kind of case: finding commonality. Finding the right people with the mutual passion, sharing the mutual feelings of how you want life to look like, and then starting doing what you love, together. However, from my experience, to eventually get there takes a tremendous amount of time for us to wait; people struggle with it, they give up, try again, back and forth.

But be that as it may, you know, we human never seem to entirely lose our effort to better life. As the film represents such lively scenarios where characters gather together and share the mutual interests; by doing that, they forge friendship they never had, they are finally able to reconcile with their loved ones. Isn’t that wonderful? Sometimes, something good happens. People might say it’s serendipity or coincidence but does it really matter? What matters is that we are capable of changing things; we just need to have the guts to do it.

Speaking of capability, to me, it’s never too proud to say that I am capable of thinking differently. Hypothetically, I would prefer being characterized as a male version of Greta (except the fact that I am an unbearably terrible singer), smart, decisive, critical, and gorgeous, who is capable of reuniting people. In the film, you can see how easily Greta gets along with Dan’s daughter as though she was her high school friend. Besides, considering how she turns against how artists these days are treated and asked of something that should never been about arts at all, that is, physical beauty. How she is unwilling to work with a company where voices are secondary interested me because that’s exactly what I need society to change, that it should have focused on talent, not beauty because it’s not talented about it. In reality, there’s so much physicality going on in music and movie industry that you can barely find a single genuine art in their fields. In short, Greta is such an ideally wishful thinking to today’s world and I would really love to see how ‘Greta’ people could be in the future, well, if you know what I mean.

Finally, Begin Again is one of the best and the most heart-warming films of the year. The highlight is the soundtracks; they are incredibly beautiful and so emotionally engaging that it will take you to the place you’ve never been. Not to mention about the setting and characters, they all are remarkable. If you want to gain some new and refreshing perspectives in life, maybe this film can give you that. So can a song save your life? Only you could answer to that. But well, it did save mine ☺