Happy Endings

Anna Claessen

I love movies with a happy ending, the ones when I leave the cinema with a smile on my face, looking differently at the world. Nowadays, there aren't many movies, if any, that inspire me. Movies seem to be made for the money, not for the heart. That's why I was so amazed when I came across the movie Hairspray. This remake of John Water´s 1988 film, directed by Adam Shankman and produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, portrays people who are underrepresented anywhere in the media, but particularly in film or TV, where an overweight character is someone you're suppose to feel sorry for or laugh at. But this time the lead is a fat teenage girl who is someone people look up to and want to look like. She uses her popularity to help outsiders, like other plus-sized girls and black kids, helping them get accepted by the mainstream. Bubbling with optimism, Tracy (Nikki Blondsky) gets her guy in the end, helps the black kids get a chance to perform on TV and even inspires her dreamboat, who is white, to dance with a black girl on TV, something that had never happened before in this 1960s setting. The message of the movie is that anything is possible, you just have to believe it enough. Which is similar to the Secret, a power-of-positive-thinking best seller of 2006, of which a film version became a phenomenon in 2007. The Secret says: 'If you want something, just ask the universe.' The Law of Attraction is based on three steps. First, you should know what you want and ask the universe for it, second, feel and behave as if the object of your desire is on its way and third, be open to receiving it. Ask, believe and receive. The Secret is a tough sell though in today's world full of news of natural disasters, terrorist attacks, wars, famine, kidnapping. It's hard not to let it affect you, especially, where so much is expected of you. You're supposed to have it all, relationship, education, career, babies and every brand new thing that appear on the market. And you have to work hard to get it and you get criticized a lot along the way. So staying positive through all that gets tiring and in the end you are bound to break down. I find myself wanting to believe the message of the Secret, but I'm also a little skeptical. It sounds a lot like all the other self-help books, and surely, it can't be all that simple to transform our lives, or more people would have done it. Since I've watched these movies, some things have improved in my life. But whom should I credit? The Secret? Or Tracy? Or me? I hear the people around me, not just my friends but my parents as well, judging those who don't have a good education, a good enough job and even worse, are still single or don't have kids. And it gets to me, makes me doubt myself. I find myself rating myself on the standards of society, on what other people think. That mindset makes me think that if I don't do all of those things that I'm missing out. So I like those happy endings. What's the harm in believing? Who knows, I could end up like Tracy, living my dream. If not, at least I still have hope, which is more than most people can say.