Love Me if You Dare

LINKS
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections

Love Me if You Dare makes me want to take my analytical skills and chuck them into the nearby trash can. What can one make of this movie? It is a fairy tale, a tragedy, a slice of true life, a great myth: idealistic, depressing, offensive -- and yet invigorating. As far as stimulating the mind, stirring up both opposition and relief, this film is by most standards an excellent film. I must admit, however, that I was somewhat frustrated by my inability to back this story into a corner and pin down writer/director’s Yann Samuell’s message. Nevertheless, all great films do make you think. They make you dream. They make you question what you know to be true. They force you to observe life from a different point of view. Since there is no proper corner for this film, perhaps some observations are in order.

This movie “speaks� about love and the reckless passion that often accompanies romantic thrill rides. It makes bold statements about love that, though I do not want them to be true, often are:

Love is selfish and cruel – Sophie and Julien make dares that destroy the other’s life

Love is jealous – Neither will allow the other to love someone else.

Love is a game – Sophie can never tell when Julien is sincere and when he is only playing the game.

Love breaks promises – Sophie is deeply wounded by Julien’s willingness to break his promises.

Love puts you in danger because it gives the other person control – Julien almost kills Sophie without remorse, and likewise Sophie returns the favor.

Love isolates you from family – Julien must deny his father to keep the game going.

Love hurts those around you – The genuine relationships of family, friends, and innocent bystanders are lost as the lovers pursue each other at all costs.

Love makes you hate – Each lover hates the other at different points in the story, usually for injustices done. They also hate themselves for their own willingness to put up with it.

Love helps you defy society without guilt – Sophie and Julien act out against authorities, social tenets, and their commitments to family and work…all in the name of the game of love.

Love is a myth that cannot be lived out – The tragic lovers fail to connect time and time again, only to be unified in death.

It seems that the word “love� should not begin these sentences because genuine love has no part in these actions and attitudes. What we often label as “love� is actually a variation of it that has been tainted by our own selfish desires. It starts out innocent and ends in destruction. Without a doubt, all of us can relate to one or more personal experiences in this list, and we are greatly impacted by the association of these pains with the term “love.� We become jaded and give up entirely on the hope of finding true love.

Fortunately, God is not jaded. He continues to love us and to teach us how to love one another. With the ultimate example of Christ’s death on the cross, God demonstrated what Sophie and Julien could not: selfless love. Rather than trying to kill us as punishment for our hateful offenses (i.e., Julien’s stunt on the train tracks), Christ gave his own life so that we could start over and live free from revenge, ruin and self-destruction.

Christ also taught that we are to love one another, earnestly and from the heart. He promoted unity, self-sacrifice, family, community, sincerity, trust, freedom, building one another up, and sincere, selfless love that is not a myth. It can be attained. In my own experience, it cannot be attained without His intervention, because my heart is always veering toward selfishness. But, I am thankful for the times when I am encouraged by friends, the Bible, the radio, sermons, movies, and time alone in prayer . . . God always seems to help change my mind about the way I interact with those in my life that I supposedly “love.� His love transcends my desire for gain, revenge, punishment, and for holding grudges. His love is not a game or a myth, and for that, I am thankful.

Note from Mel: Believe me when I say this movie touches on so many more topics than I have time or space to address. It is worth seeing simply to generate some deep, real, and meaningful conversation. I encourage you to see it and post your comments in the forum. I’ll be checking back periodically to read and respond to your thoughts . . . a very complex film. Go see it!

LINKS
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections