‘Sure’ Is For People Who Do Not Love Enough — Just Elope
A sapphic film review from a fangirl who apparently does not love enough.
Film: Imagine Me & You. Year: 2005. Genre: Rom-com. Rating: 7/10 Director: Ol Parker.
“Tell me about the lily.”
It’s a cold night in North London; the streets are empty save for two young women who have just been dancing their hearts out to Kelly Marie at a DDR arcade. They are walking with their arms crossed, cocooned in the warmth of woolen sweaters, laughter, and intimate conversation.
The woman in a red scarf stalls at first, hesitant to share what she knows of this flower. But when her companion asks again, she folds.
“The lily means, ‘I dare you to love me’.”
Girl, please. For the love of God…
Last month, I was scrolling through old movie recommendations on TikTok when I found Imagine Me & You. It’s a 2005 film starring Lena Headey (GOT’s very own bad girl, Cersei), and Piper Perabo —who looks uncannily like the mother of dragons.
A Lena Headey sapphic romance? I was sold instantly!
Piper’s resemblance to Emilia Clarke is so great that I suspected the casting was intentional. I soon learned that I was wrong; it was filmed way before GOT’s cast was put together. Just another peculiar coincidence that the universe orchestrates to get our knickers in a twist.
Written and directed by Ol Parker, the movie is a serio-comic romance between Luce and Rachel, two women in different stages of self-discovery. While Luce (played by Lena Headey) is an out-and-proud lesbian optimistic about the changing laws and the possibility of marrying a woman she loves, Rachel (Piper Perabo) is a newlywed ‘straight’ woman who looks to have lived a placid and predictable life up until that point.
The tumult-ing
The film’s great tribulation is that Rachel was married to her best friend, Hector (a nice guy type whom she loved as well as one can love their closest friend), and Luce had been the florist at their wedding. I like how it opens up with a wedding preparation scene; there’s a flurry of activities, so I felt like I had gotten right into the thick of things. I couldn’t back out if I wanted to.
The romance between both women was one of those that sneaks up on and knocks the wind out of you.
From their first interaction at Rachel’s wedding reception, I could tell that they’d have great chemistry. Rachel looked every bit the troubled bride whose (ill-fitting) ring had fallen into a big bowl of punch. In retrospect, that was probably a sign from the universe that she did not fit into the life she was trying to live.
Or was it the life which did not fit around her?
Credit: Universal Pictures
‘Barbie-heterosexual-Rachel’ (as Luce’s friend described her) was not even aware that she liked women. A woman. Luce.
All my favorite things
As the plot unravels, I’m struck by the fluidity of each character. There’s a certain malleable quality to their assertions and intents. It’s one thing now, and the next moment, it’s another. For want of a better word to describe this quality, I’ll use ‘empathy.’
The characters demonstrated levels of empathy that are almost idealistic.
It wasn’t in the cringe way where everyone sets their differences aside to hold hands and sing kumbaya (I’m thinking, Love Actually). Rather, the empathy in IM&Y was mostly depicted as a sort of sad (quick, with barely any struggle) acceptance. An acknowledgement of differences, loss, and inevitable change that most people are too egotistic or cowardly to offer.
I am no better than most people.
I saw it in the way Hector’s best friend, Coop (a certified over-the-top playboy), slid into an easy friendship with Luce — after trying and failing to get her to discover his sexual prowess. I saw it in the way Rachel’s little sister, H, comforted Heck after he made the excruciating decision to let go of Rachel.
Hector: (Voice breaking) I’m trying to do the right thing, and now I think I should have not. ‘Cause if she’d stayed with me out of guilt, that would’ve been fine, wouldn’t it?
H: My Math teacher, Mrs O’Casey, has something she always says when people are sad. She says, ‘No problem is insoluble, given a big enough plastic bag.’
I sat with all of it for a while, trying to adjust to the picture of a world where people weren’t dogged in their desire to control the narratives around them. I failed. There was something a little too easy about the film’s flow from conflict to resigned resolution. A little too unnatural. However, it made for a happy ending, so I forgave it.
From Blue is the Warmest Color to Carol, and Disobedience, sapphic romances do not get enough happy endings. So, this film provided me a break from the tragedies and bittersweet reunions.
One thing I did not forgive, however, was how inconsequential Cooper turned out to be in the film. The posters suggest that he’s a leading character entangled in an equally messy romance, but he’s just a man who talks dirty and lies for a living. Spicy.
Favorite pair
There were several interesting relationship dynamics shown in the film. We had Rachel's parents, Ned and Tessa, whose troubled relationship kept me on my toes every second they shared screen time.
There was Hector and Coop, navigating their friendship under the harsh influence of a work culture that weighed heavily on Hector’s good-guy conscience, and there was Luce and her mom — my favorites.
While Luce’s character is confident and mostly decisive, her mother (Beth) is a blend of sweet and sarcastic. Their interactions provide insight into geriatric depression, and what social challenges it can present to older folk.
Favorite character
My favorite character was easily H, ‘Henrietta,’ played by Boo Jackson. Her philosophical and inquisitive nature endeared her to me in an instant. There was that one scene where she tells Luce that it’s okay to want to spend the rest of her life with a girl. She, too, would choose her best friend, Natalie Curtis, over some boring boy.
As she runs off with her friends, she turns again to Luce and says with childlike innocence, “It doesn’t mean that you’re a lesbian or anything.”
Cracked me up proper.
Favorite scenes
Faced with the reality of their feelings for each other and what it meant, both women decide to quit while they're ahead. It's an emotional scene (but I laughed a little and I'm not sorry about it); Luce runs after Rachel who has been spooked by Hector's admitting his fear of losing her at the flower shop.
Luce catches up to her and they have a sad little ‘lets-not-do-this’ conversation that ends with two lines of poetry.
Luce: Don’t forget me.
Rachel: I won’t remember anything else.
Do I not love enough?
I keep going back to the office scene with Rachel and her two coworkers. She reads aloud to them, an excerpt from a scientist's tribute to her husband. The couple had eloped together on the day they met and spent 42 years married to each other since.
Rachel: (reading aloud) …when asked how they could possibly have known it will work out, professor Harrison replied in true scientific fashion, ‘You don’t know. You can never be sure. But you take the plunge anyway. Sure is for people who do not love enough.’
Now, professor, you know plunging is also for people who are trained professionals.
While some people might think it bold and romantic, I think it wildly impulsive; I am distrustful of a love that knows without discovering. I don’t expect that I can be 100% sure, but, by God, I want to come close.
I think the people who ‘love enough’ to take wild plunges and come out unscathed are just lucky. Rachel thought so too. While the movie depicts the ending (where both women —in true romcom style— get reunited in traffic) as some wild plunge, I see it differently.
Rachel had done quite some work to make certain of her feelings for Luce. She also had to get freed of her guilt towards Heck and receive support from her family. If this isn’t sure, I don’t know what is.
Summary
Is this review about 19 years too late? Not for the girls at war with comphet.
I was little more than a toddler when Imagine Me & You made its theater debut, but I’m all caught up now and its different themes are relevant to the society I live in.
If you’re into the thrill of forbidden romances; you love classical music or geeky flower talk; and you like to keep things a tad delusional, Imagine Me & You is a great watch for a quiet evening.
Love and lilies, if you dare.
