Lucky Life<\/em> deals with suffering, friendship, marriage, memory, death, and faith \u2014 communicated in an image-driven, poetic style. More specifically, it\u2019s a story about a group of four close friends taking their annual trip to the beach together, and the indelible impression left on each of their lives by the trip\u2019s circumstances.<\/p>\nMark (Daniel O\u2019Keefe), Karen (Megan McKenna), Jason (Kenyon Adams), and Alex (Richard Harvell) go to the Outer Banks every year to spend some time at a cozy beachfront house. It\u2019s the kind of yearly summer trip among friends that produces lasting memories. Yet we learn early on that married couple Mark and Karen have a particular reason to remember their most recent trip, reason enough that lost trip photos bothers Mark; there\u2019s something about that trip to the North Carolina coast that he doesn\u2019t want to forget. His wife quickly reassures him, though: \u201cMaybe it\u2019s better \u2014 this way it won\u2019t affect how you remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019re invited to glimpse at what they cannot bear to forget, but it\u2019s not what you might think. Jason has terminal cancer and his life expectancy is a matter of months. Unsure of how to approach him on the vacation, the other three arrive feeling hesitant. Yet, while Jason feels the burden of his cancerous plight, he longs for normalcy with his friends: for meals, swimming, and late-night conversations that don\u2019t assume the end of his earthly life has a note of ultimate finality. But what kind of memories from the trip can help cultivate and shape the friends\u2019 imaginations in such a way that life is approached from a hopeful posture?<\/p>\n
I know certain images from their trip will remain with me<\/strong>. I won\u2019t forget the four friends recounting stories at night under an umbrella at an outdoor restaurant by the beach. The lingering overview camera shot captures the scene\u2019s setting and tone in precisely the way you would want to remember a moment of joyful conversation with friends at a unique place. It\u2019s the kind of moment when you\u2019re consciously aware of the fact that you want to take in everything: the crash of the waves, the wind ruffling the umbrella, the dint of light just bright enough to illuminate loved ones\u2019\u00a0faces. The scene\u2019s depiction of friendship and place evokes a sense of gratitude elicited by boisterous laughter and keenly-felt camaraderie.<\/p>\nBut it\u2019s not just the images of authentic friendship that make this indie uniquely compelling, it\u2019s also the scenes from a marriage. We catch glimpses of a probing, yet knowing kiss; the process and potential frustration of assembling a baby\u2019s crib; physical embraces that are just on the verge of sexual union (and given an added intimacy by an understated visual approach); the comfort and pain from sharing in the devastation of a sorrow together. Mark and Karen\u2019s marriage is a life-changing communion that affects Jason and Alex just as much as it affects them. In this film, marriage has its inevitable problems, but it\u2019s not an absurd impossibility. Here \u2014 in holy matrimony \u2014 there is peace and pleasure between life\u2019s blows.<\/p>\n
In addition to optimistic images of friendship and marriage, consider Lucky Life\u2019s <\/em>authentic portrayal of Christian faith. Perhaps the most unforgettably hopeful image in this regard is the wide-angle shot of Jason setting out to sea on a ship as if being ushered into eternity \u2014 or a later shot of him slowly entering the ocean as if his impending death is about to be swallowed up into unyielding life. Or consider prayers communicated on bended knee, voices raised in unison of praise around a campfire, and a feast reminiscent of the last supper. None of these images feel manipulatively evangelistic, but Lucky Life <\/em>is unafraid to capture the reality of these young adults\u2019 sincere fidelity to God. More specifically, it\u2019s Jason\u2019s trust in God that sustains him amidst his cancer. And it\u2019s the memory of Jason\u2019s faithful perseverance that will sustain his friends, providing their imaginations with a firmer sense of transcendence.<\/p>\nA couple of the film\u2019s flashbacks have a Jon Brion-esque tone about them but, unlike Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/em> where Joel and Clementine are haunted to the point of seeking memory erasure, Mark and Karen want to remember even the \u201cblows\u201d amidst the memories of \u201cpeace\u201d and \u201cpleasure\u201d because these memories might redeem moments in their future. This hopeful commitment to the past \u2014 with all of its sorrows and suffering \u2014 makes Chung\u2019s film simultaneously haunting and<\/strong> lovely.<\/p>\nHaunting and lovely might be one way to describe life\u2019s exilic passage. Jason tells Mark that he and Karen\u2019s marriage is \u201ca beautiful thing\u201d that has \u201caffected us all.\u201d Later, Jason\u2019s commitment to God will be a beautiful thing that guides his friends after he is gone. Lucky Life<\/em> begins with the depiction of a large bridge. A sense of passage is a dominant image and motif in Chung\u2019s film. I want to say that Lucky Life<\/em> is about life\u2019s trajectory, how we are either led by the light of loving relationships\u00a0with friends, spouse, and God, or found lost and alone, overlooking the void without a way across.<\/p>\nLucky Life<\/em> is like this: it\u2019s finding clarity in the pain; it\u2019s dealing with the pain by finding contentment in the relationships we make that construct a bridge for us in this life; it\u2019s looking in awe at the oceanic eternal and having the focus of life taken off of ourselves; and, as a result, it\u2019s finding a distinctive, life-changing hope in selfless love that we will one day be restored.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.hulu.com\/watch\/320563\/lucky-life<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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