Finding the Four Pillars of Life in Film

I’m a film buff. I love going to movies. And I especially love movies with grown-up ideas that, in some way, demonstrate something of value from the Four Pillars of Life: Health, Prosperity, Creative Expression or Loving Relationships.

While Words and Pictures, a romantic comedy starring Clive Owen and Juliet Binoche, did not receive particularly good reviews, it is nonetheless satisfying in dealing with themes of interest to a mature audience. The two lead characters--Owen as Mark and Binoche as Dina, are creative people struggling with their respective challenges while teaching at an Eastern prep school.

Health:
Dina, a successful professional artist who is experiencing the worsening symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, has left New York and her successful career as a professional artist to teach art at the prep school. We see her struggling to open a bottle of pain pills, exercising on special machines, wearing braces on her hands, walking with a cane, and doing whatever it takes to continue painting her large, colorful, expressive canvases.

Mark, formerly a successful published poet, is now a blocked writer struggling with alcoholism and destructive binges which bring him to the brink of losing his job. He’s an erudite and popular teacher, yet has difficulty inspiring his students to look beyond their smartphones and apply themselves to the language arts, which he loves. He comes alive with an attraction to the new art teacher, Dina, and a lively war about the greater value of words or pictures ensures. He sobers up through AA and makes amends for some of his errors, one of which is plagiarizing a poem written by his son.

Creative Expression:
With Dina, we see the creative artist in action, the challenges she faces, and the way she forges ahead nonetheless. As she scoots along on a swivel chair, she creates huge canvases with passion and flair. The actress Binoche is an accomplished artist who has exhibited in galleries world-wide, so we experience her creative process in action. We also see how she challenges her students to paint with feeling, to seek their own inner truth.

Loving Relationships:
Of course a love story develops: boy wins girl; boy loses girl; boy regains girl. All predictable. But along the way we are treated to a the infectious passion of these creative people for their respective art forms, as well as their bantering and intellectual bickering in the tradition of Tracy and Hepburn.  We sense these adults, moving past their prime, are making a final grab for the brass ring on the carousel of life.

Prosperity: Both Mark and Dina are on the downslope in terms of career success, with Mark losing his job from his indiscretions. We expect a reversal, however. As the film and the war of words vs pictures winds down, we know these two will continue to ignite and inspire each other.

“Thought sets definite forces in Mind, relative to the individual who thinks,” says Ernest Holmes in The Science of Mind.  “We all have the ability to transcend previous experiences and rise triumphant above them, but we shall never triumph over them while we persist in going through the old mental reactions.”

Whether blocked by addictions or physical conditions, like Mark and Dina, or our own personal challenges, we can use our thoughts, our feelings, our passions, and our actions to release old mental reactions and chart a new path to the life that we desire.

And so it is.