Cinematherapy | Getting hope and encouragement

No film can make sure that your negative view of the world suddenly disappears. A film that begins in despair and ends in a victory, however, can give you hope when you feel helpless and everything seems to fall apart. If you can identify with characters, or the situations where they are in, then you share their disappointments and thereby all their steps to victory. This way you see reasons for optimism in your own situation. You can gather the courage to do what is necessary in order to change your situation, as was also done in the movie.
I use examples like 'American Beauty', 'Erin Brockovich', 'Normal', 'The Diving Bell and The Butterfly' and 'A Beautiful Mind'. 

In the movie ' American Beauty ' we get to see the boring life of Lester Burnham, a 42 year old, very unhappy man. He has been working for fourteen years at a magazine but has not made any kind of promotion and his wife Carolyn is a perfectionistic broker who makes him mad. His daughter Jane is an insecure teenager and hardly speaks with him, since he never has attention for her. When new people come to live in the district, there are some big changes in the life of the family Burnham. Lester decides to no longer do what his wife or his boss want him to, and to simply do what he likes. He decides to become happy, and successful. Lester falls in love with a friend of his daughter, and this girl enjoys the attention that he gives her. Towards the end of the film she asks how he is, and he says without a doubt that he is very very happy.

This film shows that you have influence in your own happiness and that it is never too late to take action and to change your life. Do what makes you happy. You are the main character in your own life, so live for yourself and not for others. Someone in the same situation as Lester can see him as an example and can take similar actions to become happier.

'Erin Brockovich' is also a film that can give people hope and encouragement. It's about Erin, a single mother of two young children and a baby. She is poor and looking for work, but finds this to be very difficult. One day she gets a car accident following by a lawsuit. Erin loses the lawsuit against the doctor who crashed into her car and then she asks her attorney Edward Masry if he has a job for her, as compensation. Ed gives her work as a file clerk in his Office. During her work she takes a look at the files of the PG&E case. Erin interferes with the case and eventually becomes a very good and beloved lawyer.

Because the story is something that has really happened, it is very inspiring for people who have financial difficulties and thereby have no positive outlook on the future. The film shows that your current situation doesn't mean you will stay in that situation forever.

'The Diving Bell And The Butterfly' and 'Frida' are both also based on a true story and show that despite many shortcomings and handicaps you can achieve a lot. 
The first is based on the eponymous autobiographic novel from Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor in Chief of Elle Magazine. The book is written by an journalist, as Jean-Dominique got the Locked-in syndrome on his 43th and therefor could only move and communicate with just one eye. He wrote the autobiography by communicating with that eye so someone else could write it for him. 

A whole other film, 'Normal' is about Roy Applewood, a happily married man with a son and a daughter. On the evening of the 25th anniversary of his marriage Roy suddenly passes out. This scared his wife Irma very much, and the couple goes at the parish priest of the municipality where they live to find out the cause of the fainting. Roy confesses that he has been struggling with a problem and he decides to confess to Irma. Roy tells her that he is a woman in a man's body and that he would like nothing better than a sex surgery so that he can go through life as hundred percent woman. He wants to be called Ruth and Roy immediately begins to behave and dress like a woman. Irma finds it difficult to accept this sudden new Roy and wants to divorce him. Their daughter Patty Ann on the other hand, accepts Ruth right away, but their son Wayne has a lot of trouble with it. Ruth is, at work and in the Church, faced with exclusion and harassment. Ruth can understand that people have to get used to her new appearance but she tries to stay herself as much as possible and is very strong in dealing with all the hate she gets. 

This film makes very well clear that love can overcome everything. Now Roy has finally told what he has concealed all these years, his life completely seems to change. Irma desides to stay with Ruth, because she loves the person she's married, whether it's a man or a woman. Also their son Wayne begins to accept his father, now second mother, more. People who watch this movie can realize that if you truly love someone, you would accept one as he or she is. A man or woman who is in a similar situation as Roy/Ruth can realize that eventually, the most important thing is to be your ' true self '. Also the fact that Roy/Ruth remains very strong can be quite inspiring.

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