*Courtesy of Pinterest: High Fidelity (2020)*

When Rob (Zoë Kravitz) in High Fidelity (the reboot) runs into her ex Mac (Kingsley Ben-Adir) before a date, it opens up a container of emotions that sends her down a path of self-reflection. As the narrator of her story, she looks into the camera and states, “ The ugly truth of the matter is, if we heard the world was going to end in the next 24 hours, the people I would call in the first hour are the obvious, I guess: my parents, my brother, Simon, Cherise, and I would be calling them all to apologize for the fact that I would choose to spend the next 23 hours with Mac.” At that moment it's clear to viewers how strongly she feels about Mac, despite the time they've spent apart. For the rest of the show, she recounts her time with him, coming to the final conclusion that, at a time she loved him more than anything, but there was life before him and she has to come to terms that she's living in a life after him.

Her ability to express how she feels about her former love is what makes the aforementioned scene special. It's one thing to feel strongly about someone, but putting those feelings into words is another entirely different thing. In a generation as guarded as the current one, we’re experiencing less expression and more withdrawal, a stark contrast from some of the media.

I've consumed, for years, writers who have managed to deliver romantic dialogues in their work that help people understand how deeply a connection to someone else could make you feel. If art imitates real life, I see no reason why one shouldn’t incorporate this aspect of art into their real lives. So, here are some scenes that describe love so beautifully, it can help you put things in perspective.

If you're a big fan of romcoms, this particular line might be familiar to you: “I came here because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” You can see the moment these words start to have an effect on Sally when she hears them from Harry in the classic When Harry Met Sally. An instance of a love so desperate that one’s feelings are all-consuming. The person you love feels so deeply that they are in a hurry to spend the rest of their days with you. I don't know how you could deny that person a piece of you. This scene is a perfect depiction of what it means for you to find Harry and Sally in yourself.

*Courtesy of Pinterest: When Harry Met Sally (1989)*

What is meant for you finds you, but doesn’t necessarily stay. This was proven on different seasons of the teen to adult drama Veronica Mars, based on a young lady who becomes her disgraced sheriff father’s assistant and helps him investigate crimes of the small town of Neptune. She has multiple love interests throughout the show, but the most recurrent one is with her longtime enemy Logan Echolls. After they put aside their differences in the first season they start a romantic relationship which goes on and off till the final season where they end up together. The show portrays Logan as tough and “tortured.” Yet there’s no denying that Veronica, perhaps even tougher than he is, softens him up.

*Courtesy of Pinterest: Veronica Mars (2004-2007)*

One of the couple’s core moments is when Logan hosts an alternative prom and apologizes for his missteps during the past summer. He delves into a heartbreaking speech where he says, “I thought our story was epic you know, you and me.” Veronica replies “Epic how?” — a question prompting one of Logan Echolls’ most memorable lines: “Spanning years and continents, lives ruined, bloodshed epic.” He continues his drunken ramble about how they'll go their separate ways and he’ll never get to see her again, and how he wishes for a do-over. In true Veronica fashion of avoiding seriousness, she stops him by saying, “Come on, ruined lives, bloodshed, do you really think a relationship is meant to be that hard?” He replies, “No one writes songs about those that come easy.” The yearning, the turmoil, the angst — these are reminders that love doesn't come easily. Loving someone even knowing a future together is uncertain might be even harder, but it's better to have loved and lost than to have not loved at all.

An even worse fate is to have loved too late. In The Photograph, which tells the story of Christina Eames, a single black mother who chooses her work over love no matter how strongly she feels and ends up realizing too late how she'd lost sight of what matters. Before her passing she leaves letters for her daughter Mae describing her past and the real identity of her father and speaking of her compelling love for Mae’s father Isaac. She states, “Sometimes the heart can be so full of love, it's like a weight on your chest making it impossible to move. That's how I felt when I was with him.”

*Courtesy of Pinterest: The Photograph (2020)*

Despite that she still leaves him behind to pursue her photography. When she tries to return to him, he has moved on and it's too late. She becomes successful in the pursuit of her career but never loves the same way again. In the beginning of the movie, we see her being interviewed about her life and she answers one of the questions by saying, “I wish I was as good at love as I am at working.” Don’t most people wish they were better at loving and opening up to someone than they are at other things?

The years were good to Christina work wise, but even with a new man in her life, there was still something amiss. Her and Isaac’s story leads Michael, a New York reporter, to her daughter, a romance blossoming between the two. It seems Mae inherited some of her mother’s aversion for love when she calls it quits after finding out Michael got a job offer in London. Her mind is changed after she reads her mother’s final letters and flies to London to profess her love. She states, “I think I'm not used to needing anyone, but I need you and I don't care where you live, I just want to be as close to you as possible. I don't want to be practical; I want to figure it out, and I don't want so much time to pass that we can't come back.” From her last sentence it’s obvious she’s learned lessons from her mom’s past and even if her mom was too late at love, she at least taught her Mae not to give up on it.

There will come a time in your life that you fall in love deeply with a person, and you might experience it like it is in the movies. You may hear these same words again, but from your love, not a screen. No one knows why a type of love picks some and not others. You can choose to face these emotions with practicality, but it won’t favor you as much. If there's anything these movies are trying to say, it is that even if it’s unrequited, or at the wrong time, or with the wrong person, or too hard or too easy, love still deserves to be felt.

Article by Yasmine Don Braimah, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine

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