Wicker Park

HHow agonizing and bittersweet is love lost? How profoundly wonderful and poignant is love found again? Anyone who has been in love and lost that special someone can relate to the empty hollowness of loss. Anyone who has had the blessings of rekindling that precious love again knows how fragile love can be and how we must protect it at any cost. No greater gift has God bestowed upon us as human beings than the love between a man and a woman. It mirrors the unconditional love He has for us and lets us understand why we are described as “The Bride” of Christ, a precious truth.

All who go into the theater to see “Wicker Park” must keep this in mind. This film, although not an Oscar contender, takes us on the journey of young love and with a Romeo and Juliet type of emotion sets us on a course we are not soon to forget. Up to the end it keeps the audience guessing if the hero will get the heroin back again. The conclusion does not disappoint.

“Wicker Park” is the Americanization of the 1996 French film “L’Appartement” and like it’s French twin Wicker Park has a quirky plot full of twists and suspense. It’s substance is all emotion. It could be set anywhere, in any time period, on any continent and we would still understand it’s message. It plays with our understanding of love, friendship, betrayal, loss and trust. All the inner workings that make us human and subject to “the flesh,” weak though it may be, is underscored. What makes this story interesting is the sincerity of the actors within the skin of their characters and the sheer inventiveness of the photography.

Two years have passed since Matthew (a gentle and a perfectly naive performance by Josh Hartnett) lost his one true love Lisa (a sweet earthy Diane Kruger). Without any warning or explanation she just vanished from his life leaving him a shell of a person going through the motions of life. It is not clear how he got from working in a camera shop in Wicker Park to New York businessman, but his match with his new girlfriend (Jessica Pare) who has a brother with connections in the firm where Matt is now employed gives us a hint.

On the eve of cinching a big “deal” for the firm and jetting off to China, Matt encounters a whisp of a girl who he is convinced is his long lost Lisa. He becomes obsessed with finding this girl, and so begins Matt’s journey compelling him into a web of dim mystery. Matt postpones his flight to China without telling the firm or his new girlfriend. No one knows he’s still in the city except for his best friend Luke (Matthew Lillard does a great job being a guy lost and clueless) who eventually winds up the unknowing cog in the wheel of Matt’s quest.

Through a maze of incredible coincidences Matt finds a Lisa (Rose Byrne as a misguided angel with her own obsession), but not his lost Lisa. She lures him into a relationship which he regrets later, but she seems so sweet and innocent to him he doesn’t know how to break it off. And still he pines for the real Lisa. Matt is torn between doing the right thing and his overpowering compulsion that his Lisa is so close he can smell her perfume.

Just when we think we know the plot, the twists start coming in rapid succession. Through lost keys and notes, unanswered messages, missed phone calls and through memories painted on the screen in mesmerizing images, past and present mingle delightfully yet off-centered. The viewer plays into the hands of the story and is swept into Matt’s confused mania. The “other” Lisa turns out to be Luke’s new girlfriend Alex, who has been posing as the ghost Lisa to land Matt’s love. Alex turns out to be the one with the real obsession in the end. I will not go into the details of how we find out where all these characters end up because that would ruin most of the surprise events that bring us to the tense conclusion.

As in most of the movies I have reviewed lately, there are minimal swear words in “Wicker Park,” but the sexuality is rampant. The vivid references to sex before marriage and lustful content discussed by these characters paints a far more vivid picture than any profanities ever could—and is ten times more impressionable on young minds. Parents should be concerned with this sly attempt the film industry has taken to get the PG-13 rating and boost ticket sales. It is no secret that teens spend millions of dollars a year on pleasure, movies being one of the big dollar items.

Parents should know that the movie has brief strong language, some explicit sexual references, and non-explicit sexual situations. Characters drink and one becomes tipsy. The character of Luke was a womanizer and made many off-color references to sex with women. There is 1 F-word, 2 religious profanities, and 14 religious exclamations which are disturbing and unneeded to move the story along.

This is an adult film. The context in spirit is all secular. There is not even a hint of the Lord and how He could be the Helper to these poor lost individuals. The idea of love at first sight is a running thread throughout, but it gets confused with lust at first sight, and weakens the strength of the main character’s romance.

The love scene between Lisa and Matt happens on the “first date” and is all passionate, lustful kisses, undressing furiously, and no build up to the relationship. For teen girls and boys who are allowed into this film because of the PG-13 rating, this sends such a confused message on real, true love that it remains a major concern to me. How can they know what it is to cultivate a lasting love for their mate through knowing the inner person if the movies they see make it seem natural to jump in bed first and have sex right away? Where is the safe sex message in the films of today? To take a quote from author Saul Wurman “You fall in love over conversation, not over sex.”

Some dialogue to ponder:

In the opening scene, Matt is looking for an engagement ring for his new girlfriend and the jeweler describes the diamonds within the rings as “God’s tears.” When Matt says he just doesn’t know which one is right, the jeweler utters the most poignant phrase in the whole movie: “…in the end, it’s not your eye that must decide, but your heart.” Later, we find that Matt really wanted to be a photographer. Lisa says she wouldn’t know what is lovely enough to take a picture of. Matt’s answer tells of what we all should be looking for in creation. He gently declares “things don’t have to be extraordinary to be beautiful.”

Matt’s friend, Luke has a line which the secular world embraces more than it knows. He says “The minute you decide on something, along comes temptation.” Jesus was tempted of Satan and we should make it perfectly clear to our teenagers that temptation can be overcome by using His divine example: knowing scripture, knowing faith, knowing God’s will in all things is our shield against temptation and sin. Total abstinence before marriage, of course, is the only way to staying not only physically healthy, but spiritually healthy as well.

There are three sex scenes in this film, and although they don’t show naked bodies, they all relate potential destructive messages about real love as apposed to just lust that can later interfere with marital intimacy. Parents are advised to lovingly guide their teens into God’s will for their love lives, not just in relation to this movie, but many “teen” love stories out today that depict distorted love relationships.

There is also the issue of deception and selfishness. Discuss the ultimate hurt and ruin of persons absorbed with selfish desires to the point of domination. Alex’s character not only made herself miserable in the end, but she nearly destroys everyone involved in her obsession by duplicity and lies. It is not always the easiest way to our heart’s desires to go about it honestly. The quicker way, although fraught with hurt, may be most tempting. Satan would like nothing better than to entice us into sin. The younger he grasps us, the better. Philippians 4:6 encourages us not to be anxious about anything, for the Lord knows the desires of our hearts and will give them to us if we come to Him in prayer and supplication. Go about obtaining your dreams through honesty and patience. Wait upon The Lord and He will be sure to deliver unto you a wealth of what you need.

In Alex’s case she may have benefitted from these verses from King Solomon in Proverbs 9:17 and 18:

Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.”

Sin in any form is a crippler. It is wise to note to your children that although hard to accept, God’s desires for you may not always be what you want, but what you need.

I initially liked this movie, although the issues I magnified in this review bothered me more after the viewing—when I had time to really think about them. In conclusion, I stand with Micah 6:8 “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Violence: Minor / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: Heavy