Walking the Wall

I think I’m probably one of the last people to see the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical Rent. I had always intended to see it, I loved the "Seasons of Love" song without having seen it and I love Idina Menzel from her songs on the musical Wicked, but I just hadn’t gotten around to ACTUALLY seeing it. Well, I’ve seen it now and I have to say that the movie followed through on the song, although "Will I" overshadowed the theme song, in my opinion, and it was heartbreaking watching the scene with the members of the AIDs support group standing in a circle singing:

 Will I loose my dignity;

will somebody care?

Will I wake tomorrow 

from this nightmare? 

While people in the circle fade away and new ones replace them, it’s a very painful scene and yet gives the sense of solidarity and hope. And that is the interesting thing about this movie–that a movie about AIDs can also be a movie of hope. But it really isn’t a movie about AIDs, it’s not a movie about homosexuality, it’s not a movie about gender issues, it’s not a movie about poverty or drug addiction–it’s a movie about humanity, compassion, and love. It’s a movie that asks what really counts in life–is life measured in time (minutes, daylights, sunsets, midnights); is life measured in space or distance  (inches, miles); or in externals (cups of coffee, laughter, strife)… Now some reviews I’ve read say that it asks a lot of questions, but never gives the answers, but I would disagree with that. I think the answers it gives is that we are all just people, happy, hurting, living, dying, struggling to find a place, needing people around us who care–needing love and compassion and needing to give love and compassion.