The Movie In Her Mind

Everybody adores a gravity defying love story, whether read from books, watched from movies or heard from the people around us. These are the ones that are met with teary-eyed lamentations and sighs of wonder. Almost always, also with jealous yearnings on how these rare unforgettable tales could hopefully happen to mundane beings and not just to scripted and powdered actors under the heat of a spotlight and a rolling camera.

When people dream, they dream of being the star of the show, the focus point of the story. She is not an exception. In her mind, an eager camera would follow as the moments become richer and the story enticingly unfolds. As the air becomes sweeter and the days fills with sunshine and the ROYGBIV of rainbows, the story wraps itself with the silver glint of a promising tomorrow. Little does she know that it is not her story to star in, despite her efforts and the slowly crystallizing glimpses of new-found possibilities.

People watch romantic movies to feel the ecstasy of the leads, hence, most don't pay attention to the characters on the side. Either they are irritated because they stand in the way of the two getting together or they don't matter at all because everybody knows that the couple would no doubt live happily ever after in the end. She was the same, until she finds out how hard it is to be just a mere spectator among the crowd of faceless extras.

Imagine her disappointment when she finds out that the movie that she has been filming in her head will never be released and break records in the box office, because it turns out, it is not her movie to claim in the first place. Her "starring role" was abruptly cut and rewritten into this character that is immediately rendered insignificant once the true star supernova-s her way into the epic and heart-wrenching tale of a love lost and found.

It is a heart-shattering letdown because it's a role she has been prepping for and hoping for for so long. She has been brought to believing that it is going to be her big break and these promises has convinced her to open the door and let it all out. Now, these unfulfilled expectations has convened as a dead weight in her chest, not enough to kill her dreams, but powerful enough to make her stop dead on her tracks in a stunned disbelief.

The film is released and the reviews come in. The critics are divided. The story is complicated and intense but it challenges conventions and some are not as quite comfortable with that. But no matter what the viewers say, one thing is certain. Nobody ever remembers the brief cameo of the character on the side, the extra who filled up the screen time with pretty smiles and shallow saccharine moments with the lead male figure. No one knows that she has offered more than petty giggles and blushes and nobody really cares that the trust, affection and the surrender of reservations will be hard to take back once the director hollers "It's a wrap!".