In contemporary society the definition and the meaning of such well known concepts as friendship, love, attraction or communication is changing. New technologies implicate new means of communication and the concepts have to change themselves in order to correspond to new demands and traditions of the society. The process of the revaluation of the timeless values is not instantons and finite. We can only observe the understanding of a certain concept at the moment and try to understand occurring changes.
The culture also reacts to the change in the human perception of that values, producing something new, or just trying to show us the change with the help of the existing means. Cinema is not an exception. Being one of the most popular genres of the culture it cannot but react on this process showing all the changes. Analyzing the modern cinematograph we can find good examples of that concepts and outline the reflection of the changes, occurring to them.
The movie Crazy, Stupid, Love can be the good basis for outlining the peculiarities of that concepts ant its analysis. The main theme of that film is the human relationships and the problem of miscommunication in the family. The main characters Cal and Emily Weavers are on the edge of divorce because of the crisis in their longstanding relations. The problem is that they still love each other but do not understand the problems of the partner. The movie represents us different kinds of human relations and concepts.
Friendship is one of them. It is the kind of an intimate relationship characterized by mutual sympathy, presence of common interests and desire to spend time together, “For this reason, love and friendship often get lumped together as a single topic; nonetheless, there are significant differences between them” (Helm para. 3). The integral attributes of friendship are social support, trust, respect, responsiveness and capitalization. There are some age related changes in the peculiarities of friendship connected with the differences in points of view of a child and an adult, but the main attributes remain the same. In the movie we can see the good example of that concept in the Cal and Jacobs relations. From the beginning of the movie it is rather difficult to call Jacob Cals friend. They have nothing in common and we can even watch Cals skeptical attitude to that young man. The difference in age leaves no chances for them to have common interests. Although, having noticed Cals poor state, Jacob wants to help him, showing one of the attributes of friendship – social support. He wants to pull Cal out of his depression taking him under his protection and giving some pieces of advice. Being just a pity for the unhappy middle-aged man, this relations become a true friendship. The uprise of the common interests and desire to spend time together makes them close to each other. With the development of this relations Cal becomes something important for Jacob and in the situation with Jacobs strong feelings it is Jacob, who needs Cals piece of advice and emotional support. The best approval of their friendship is Jacobs desire to punch David Lindhagen to take revenge for all Cals tortures. We can also see the opposition of Cal and Bernie Rileys old relations with that new ones. Bernies refusal to save their friendship is shown in a playful manner but it still can be treated like a betrayal.
Attraction is the second main concept which could be found in that movie. It is one of the basic concepts in human relations. The level of attraction determines our social state and relations within your surroundings. Attractive people usually have better conditions for work or study. It is known that people find a person attractive if he treats them well or he shares their ideas. We consider an attractive man to have only positive and desirable character traits. This is perfectly shown in the movie. Cal is a positive man who should be attractive for women. But his appearance and the way of behavior was not appropriate. Jacob, on the contrary, is a good example of an attractive man who conquers women easily. In the process of teaching Cal it becomes clear that appearance and the right behavior are the main factors in people’s attractiveness. It is the most important factor at the first meeting. After Cals transformation he has not problems with women. Seeing his attractive appearance they considered him to be the man they need. The last detail was his behavior. He just showed the women his interest, letting her talk about herself. The movie is a good approval of the concept of attraction and its main components.
The last concept we would like to mention is closely connected with the previous one. It is the concept of communication. This concept consists not only of words and phrases. The nonverbal element composes a great part of it. Our moves and actions, gestures and looks are what is known as a body language. It is an important part of the concept. Our poses and movements tell more about our intentions than words. The obvious change in Cals nonverbal behavior leads to the essential changes in his life. Obtaining the confidence in his body language he has lightened the communication with the members of his surroundings.
Summing it up we should say that the movie Crazy, Stupid Love is a good example of combining all that concepts in our life and its great importance.
Works Cited
Helm, Bennet. “Friendship.” Stratford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. Web.
Crazy, Stupid, Love. Dir. Glenn Ficarra. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2011. DVD.