Films, films, films, we love them. They have a huge influence on us and they always have. We spend our lives being surrounded by them from the legendary classics to those petty teenage sing alongs, we adore them. But are films beneficial to us? No, I’m not talking about how they destroy brain cells or increase childhood obesity but how we apply film ‘rules’ to our life. In films they are rules they abide by. When things go wrong they somehow come out triumphant, the hero is always declared the hero but above all, contentment is applied.

Have you ever noticed at the end of films there is always that sense of closure, things will be okay, we are..content, but this never happens in real life. We can endure some of the most depressing, harrowing and saddest of the sad things and we may never see the light of happiness again so why is it in films they do? Something awful has happened and just when the character thinks life is going to come crumbling down on top of them something happens. It is one single thing that gives them that beacon of hope. Then an amazing film score will play, the character will smile into the distance and there it is, the reassurance that everything will be okay.

When I hear people complain about how life isn’t like the films, I never assume they are talking about the arrival of Prince Charming. People think we want to be at the airport and then the man of our dreams will call out our name and they’ll grab our face plant us a big wet one and we live happily ever after. That just isn’t the case for most people. Take for example the film ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. I am not slandering this film for it is one of my favourites but it does back up my opinion. In case you haven’t seen it is about a very misfortunate and broken family who have to drive across the country to enter their ten year old daughter in a beauty pageant. During the film there is death, broken dreams, attempted suicide and a very great dance scene.

In this film they don’t come out triumphant, in fact the ten year old is disqualified from the pageant. But, in the end the family drive away in their broken sunshine yellow Volkswagen but their hope is not gone. Instead, a great film score is played and every single character is smiling into the horizon and a sense of hope is within the air. This is what I want. I don’t want that stupid airport scene. I want contentment. I want to feel okay when there was a long period where I felt as if the weight of the world was on my shoulders and I was about to be swallowed by the ground at any moment.

Hope is what we aim for. We hope for life to get better by itself. It is not that were too lazy to go out and make life okay for us but were afraid, especially teenagers. We are afraid of failure, not being triumphant life the films. The most important thing is that we all understand that life is not like the films. We must not have the expectations for life to turn out like the silver screen. We must understand that to make life okay, we make it okay.

I’m not usually this negative.