Connection: "Once" upon a time, there was "The Office"

As I walked half awake into Humanities with nothing more than an essay and an urge to fall asleep, I sat down with my head down only to figure out our class was watching a movie. When the projector started formulating orchestrated colors to induce movement in colors, my mind slowly awakened from its struggle to operate due to the severe lack of sleep. As the movie progressed, I was surprised that the events in the film were sort of unorthodox and worth a laugh. I found Once to be an interesting movie for it does something so un-cliche, something ambitious that to mock the conventional, systematic plot used by the Hollywood film industry. It indeed challenges the status quo. How and why? Because the film is a mere representation of reality, which lets the plot loosely flow as if we the viewers were just observing the lives of the characters.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. In a conventional Hollywood romance film, the guy and the girl always come together to live a happy life, so on and so forth. Now, it is quite evident that Once, to a certain degree, challenges the status quo. The film was a delight to watch and profoundly different, through their near-realistic plot, camera angles/movements (as discussed in class), and many other techniques. All these aspects or techniques aid the viewers in perceiving that this film is realistic. The film tries to play with originality by taking moments in the movie where the audience is believed to think that the same cliche, Hollywood storyline would jump in and dictate the ending. The director deliberately ruins the corny Hollywood scene where the guy kisses the girl and they both live happily ever after to put the viewer back in their place, playing with their expectations. What the director also tries to do is challenge the status quo by putting this different storyline to convey a message; not all films have to be the same and flow into a happy ending, controlling the plot in order to do so. I truly believe it was a relief to watch a movie that focuses on making something as realistic as possible, rather than throwing some realistic aspects and making the ending predictable, as always.

NBC's comedy television series The Office does something rather similar to keep the feeling that the show is being filmed in front of our own eyes. The director does so by making the viewer think the characters are talking directly at the viewer. Another thing is that both Once and the Office focus on plots that are un-cliche and unpredictable, which makes it more real, no? The endings always feel like there needs to more to it, rather half-assed, and that's what makes it real! I'm not a person to watch a movie where the storyline is un-cliche and where the director totally messes up the plot, but I see it as a good thing. I can't watch cliche movies for the rest of my life. I see this as a way to enhance one's perspective, to transcend the conventional cliche plots we're so used to.

And so in accordance to the title of this article, not all things may live "happily ever after."


...and that's the saddening truth of reality.

Image's origin - http://www.hollywoodchicago.com/uploaded_images/1-740802.jpg