Why we like sin so very, very much
Some have criticized Wilson’s second wife, Melinda, for pushing a particular interpretation of events (in the movie she’s played by Elizabeth Banks, unfailingly kind and smart and fierce and always radiantly beautiful).
The movie is edited with jagged bursts of energy punctuated by languorous coastside beauty shots representing at first sun and fun, later despair and isolation.
The talented person (pick your talent) who rides a meteor of creative fervor to the top; through some combination of addiction or bad brain chemistry or bad luck or even bad juju, falls into some sort of fearsome pit; then recovers his/her strength and talent to blossom!
Audrey had a lot of strikes against her, and she heard those shouts a thousand times: too short, too young, not very smart, borderline personality disorder.
[...] she came back from all that, yes, she did, and today she’s the best danged 14-and-under girls soccer player in the whole danged league.
Somewhat dodgy vice president, defeated for California governor and hurled into outer darkness, then all the way back as the president!
[...] Garland never kicked her habit, so we got a sad ending in spite of all her can-do spirit.
There are people who just died too young, skiing accident or car crash or shot by a jealous spouse, but the stories that stick are the ones about the “pursued by demons” sort, Janis Joplin and Karen Carpenter and Amy Winehouse (whose documentary biopic is tearing up the art house box office, more proof that we do love “there but for the grace of God” tales).
What should we do with Keith Richards, whose fine autobiography, “Life,” makes it pretty clear that he got through everything (numerous detoxes from alcohol or heroin or whatever; longer or shorter terms in jail; harrowing automobile journeys; constant repeat offenses in all of the above) without apparently drawing any conclusion at all?
A lot of religions contain high-profile redemption narratives, including the old Redeemer himself, arrested and taunted and stripped and murdered, only to reappear sitting on the right hand of God, which is a good example of failing upward.