Few weeks ago, I was in need of some laugh. Some comedy. I tried to look for some funny movies. If I am not mistaken I browsed about the comedian Fred Armisen and stumbled into one trailer of a movie. The movie title is How It Ends.
The premise seems simple. The world is ending tonight because a meteor will hit earth soon. The main character is Liza. She was thinking to leave the world at peace. Interestingly, in the last day on earth, her younger self showed up physically.
Another reminder on spoiler here. If you don’t want to be spoiled, just skip. :)
Liza tried to make peace first with several people, started with her father. A story of an adult with parental issue is quite clear by this point. She also tried to visit her long-lost friend. Tried to make amends of their mistakes in the past. And a guy named Larry.
From one person to another, we should get some sense that Liza was actually trying to make peace with herself. I think it’s a really interesting exploration about the belief of inner child between us. How It Ends subtly asked us:
How is our relationship with our younger self?
As Liza visited her mother, the emotion continued to get more intense. As it turned out, Liza was abandoned by her mother for quite a long time. The scene where Young Liza started to express her sadness felt so emotional.
However, it’s still a comedy movie. I guess the cameos truly nailed the funny scenes. It helps to balance the emotions throughout the movie. After all the people Liza tried to make amend, she must confront her younger self. You should be able to feel that this scene really hit all the feelings.
I’m your prisoner and I’ve been your prisoner this whole f***ing time. All your life, you’ve been licking your f***ing wounds. You haven’t realized that I’m the biggest wound of all.
Is it really the problem of all grown ups?
Have we make peace with ourself?
Have we accepted the wounds of our younger self?
Have we grown up together with our younger self?
Or maybe, we just shut our younger self out there and hide her/him deep inside ourself like a time bomb?
I am sorry if those questions are scary. But, I feel like the movie successfully wrap those questions in Liza’s journey in her last day on earth.
Could she make peace with her younger self before the earth explode?
I am glad that I watched this movie. I guess I will watched it again. It’s still a funny movie with a subtle reminder to keep connected with our younger self.
