True Love Helps You Breathe

Although the 1997 film STILL BREATHING isn’t prominent among Brendan Fraser’s many credits, I think those who rate it less significant than a piece such as GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE (which probably made more money) demonstrate what struck me as important when I caught it on AMAZON PRIME. In the story, a quirky artistic Texas street performer lives to make his audiences happy with his puppetry and music—an occupation which may seem superficial, but he focuses on people who need the laughter he creates, people such as terminally ill children and their families or the depressed or downtrodden. So, although he’s not destined for fame and fortune, he lives a deeply satisfying life. He’s a favorite person in the community, because he has the gift of relishing all that’s good around him in an open, loving way and contributing friendship where he can. Brendan Fraser makes us believe in this man Fletcher.

As an incurable romantic, Fletcher’s major concern in life is that he needs to locate a woman he glimpsed in his dreams and visions, as his father and grandfather before him glimpsed their true loves and went to find them. Ironically, the woman he has envisioned is, in reality, a con artist who lives off wealthy men who fall for her machinations. She’s the epitome of superficial materialistic cynicism. We might label her as endemic of what’s ailing our society. She’s the shiny, trendy distraction that can lure us so far away from our emotions, empathy, and our true selves that we eventually forget what we once treasured and settle for things instead of deep feelings. She secretly lacks self-worth as do so many today.

When the story unfolds, we’re lured into rooting for Fletcher with all his eccentricities because he knows how to be happy and peaceful. He doesn’t cheapen his love for the girl with easy sex but elevates sex with honest love. He isn’t bound by conventions and often sleeps on his table or piano. No wonder he seems fanciful, even without his visions. He’s kind and loving and free. He reminds me of a line from another charming film, this one a clever play with time from the UK, called FROM TIME TO TIME.

At the end of WWII, a boy comes to what was once a grand mansion where his grandmother (played by Maggie Smith) lives. They’re both waiting hopefully for the return of the boy’s father who’s listed as MIA. The house shelters bits of time from a hundred years earlier, living bits that allow the boy to interact with what to him are ghosts. Of course, the people he cares about from a hundred years earlier can’t physically live in his time, and he must face the reality of death. His grandmother, however, tells him that death isn’t what’s important; it’s being loved.

Why do people of all ages cherish the film THE PRINCESS BRIDE? Watching the magical, healing power of real love even in a fantasy is refreshing and hopeful—a perfect refreshment for summer.