You’ re Beautiful” Written & Directed by (Robert) Masseo Davis

You’ re Beautiful”
Written & Directed by (Robert) Masseo Davis


This film is open-ended and is meant to both force the audience to question their feelings regarding the context and to reflect on human behavior and our inexplicable attachments to moral values. Not to say that the film is plausibly immoral, quite the contrary, the film is meant to make the viewers wonder why like this, as in the film’s narrative construction. The audience is not provided with an easy read of how to take the story as a whole. Ultimately it could be said that choice is the central theme of the film and it forces many accompanying concepts on the viewers such as paranoia, reality vs. dreams, fate, pre-destined sets of circumstances, and even empathy towards characters.
Choice as a driving narrative force is usually seen as a typical standard of films because most narrative films are motivated by the characters’ development and thus resulting in their specific character choices. In relation to the film’s narrative construction, choice could be written off as irrelevant because any audience member could say, “it was all a dream.” but with this conclusion many other thematic ideas are brought to the table. Was it real or a dream? Is Lauren (the female lead / wife) being paranoid, or do we as an audience member allow our own personalities manifest in the characters within the film? What is the fate of this woman? What and why ultimately do we as audience members are? Is it not Celeste (the other leading lady) who is truly hurt? Breaking the film into three sections allows for the sequence to seem like a study of people’s choices, rather than a narrative about a woman stuck in an unfortunate situation more like a documentary experiment, as opposed to a linear storyline. The study of choices bears for all of us regardless the outcome. We each make choices everyday, often it is as mundane as whether to have breakfast or not.
Other themes that swarm the film are paranoia; questions of who’s the lead (who is the protagonist- who is the antagonist), and how the film pretends to be more than it seems and yet, it is merely the story of two people talking in a room. “You’re Beautiful”, is a film that doesn’t let the viewers become attached to any secular character, regardless of the fact that there are only three characters in the film and the one lead male only appears momentarily in the films final segment. The story itself revolves around Lauren, who is quickly tied directly and indirectly to Celeste. Their dialogue unveils what is most unexpected and would change their lives forever. Lauren and Celeste are both good people. They are juxtaposed to set the audience for a reaction. The audience is asked to make their own ties with characters. Who will they choose? This is meant to keep the film from becoming an escape and totally entertaining. This film is not one where an outside reality is created and the audience is readily embraced. The film sets out to keep the audience members separate from the narrative and invariably question the moral fibers of the 2 women.
The last section of the film was not meant to seem as a section that makes the juice of the film meaningless. The notion of the story being a dream was meant to further the awareness of the film’s purpose. The “open-ended -ness” of the film is deliberate and what makes the narrative a series of questions. Based on the information provided by the film, the viewers can’t help but become curious about what happens next for some sense of closure. By not giving the audience that desired closure “You’re Beautiful”, illustrates a narrative that is hopefully entertaining by making those of us watching not only want more but also makes us continue the dialogue beyond the theater. Many of us moviegoers are addicted to closure and this film makes the audience create its own conclusion. .
“You’re Beautiful”, is not meant to be like Jean-Luc Godard films. Godard films that imitate other movies by keeping the audience separate from the films’ narrative and allowing the audience to question the film’s purpose. .“You’re Beautiful”, does not establish a main character nor makes any effort to persuade the audience to be tied emotionally to any one character. Often films create a character that is the “main character” or “lead” and it is within their character and their choices for action or non-action conduct the events of cause and effect that predetermine the course of the narrative within the film. The film should make people question their own perception of the film’s conclusion. What does her husband have to talk to her about? And more importantly, what does each audience member think he has to say and why? “You’re Beautiful” is a film about our lives and choices we make. We live in a culture where we hold so dear a set of moral values. Oftentimes, we judge each other harshly according to these virtuous ideals. We are quick to draw conclusion even without merit. .“ You’re Beautiful” presents us with a situations that only we as an audience member can decipher how to make one’s action righteous. The characters’ actions are not distinguishable as simple black and white. Hollywood has made billions by building and nurturing an audience that are quick to see everything in black and white. By those standards, “You’re Beautiful” is a shade of gray.