By Laura BennettThursday 7 Jun 2018Hope AfternoonsMoviesReading Time: 3 minutes
Dealing with change is a non-negotiable part of life. When your favourite restaurant runs out of mustard, you’ve got to decide what else to have on your sandwich. When an escalator breaks, you’ve got to work out where to find the steps. In the romantic comedy movie Finding Your Feet, we’ve got to ask though; could we move past it if something BIG changed?
As a 60-something snobbish career wife, Sandra (Imelda Staunton) has prided herself on her immaculate home and ‘life of leisure’ as a recently dubbed ‘Lady’ within her community. On the eve of her husband’s retirement, she discovers he’s been having an affair with her best friend and with that; the later-life she’d been building toward is completed derailed. Forced into exile with her lower class bohemian sister, Sandra has to reimagine her future and decide if she’s willing to adapt it.
Initially (as expected), Sandra is beside herself. A lifetime of decisions made with one outcome in mind has been shattered. There are all the signs of panic and disbelief at the time wasted, and feelings of betrayal. But (without spoiling anything), as she begins to un-clench herself from the identity she created around her husband, Sandra reconnects with her spirit of adventure which helps her see the possibilities ahead.
“What’s fantastic about Finding Your Feet is that it shakes us out of the sense that life and its possibilities have an expiry date.”
It’s rare to have a movie whose principal cast are all over the age of 50, but Finding Your Feet is powerful. When we’re in our 20’s and 30’s breakups, job losses, and hiccups of all kinds are stereotypically easier to pass over. There’s a sense that there’s still time left, there’s other fish in the sea, and ‘we’re only young’. When the same experiences happen in your 60’s though, that’s something else. There are rhythms of life you’ve become accustomed to and an assumption that you’re living in the stability and cheer you worked so hard for in your youth. That’s the way life goes right?
What’s fantastic about Finding Your Feet is that it shakes us out of the sense that life and its possibilities have an expiry date. Yes, it’s easier if things stay on track (and in this case relationships don’t break down), but whatever age you are, whatever life has thrown at you, it’s a firm reminder that you’re not done yet. Don’t lose your ability to see around the roadblock.
To take a bit of wisdom from Psalm 139:16, God saw you before you were born. Every single day of your life. He’s recorded, even before its pass. And that includes the dodgy, disheartening, potentially soul-crushing ones too. He sees you, He knows what you’re facing, and if you let me throw in one more verse, John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
You got this.
Finding Your Feet is on DVD now, enter now to win your copy.