Laurel Canyon

On the road to the perfect life, Sam & Alex took a little detour
The plot in Laurel Canyon was filled with many twists and turns. In the beginning Sam and Alex seemed to be heading on the right track to want they wanted in their lives. Sam was beginning his residency and Alex finishing her dissertation. They both were focused on what they wanted and the path they needed to take in order to get there. At first Alex was not very receptive to Jane, Sam’s mother lifestyle. Instead she tries to stay away from it, making all efforts to avoid becoming apart of that lifestyle. However, Sam and Alex make their transition in the place. Sam’s transition occurs when he is almost involved in a car accident with 2nd year resident Sarah. That experience sparks their interest in each other. For Alex, it is when Ian, Jane’s lover is also almost involved in an accident; Alex becomes a bit more curious about this unknown lifestyle. Sam and Alex become tangled in a web of deceit as they each begin having affairs.
Another element explored in the film is the mother and son relationship between Sam and Jane. Unlike the protective and nurturing characteristics of most mothers Jane is care free and wild which causes Sam to retreat as far away as possible from a lifestyle of instability and lack of boundaries. His mother’s lifestyle has strained the relationship between the two. Sam goes off to medical school to prove to himself that he is not like his mother. However, by the end of the film he becomes more like her than he’s ever been. In the end Sam is no longer tied to the world of strict boundaries and total control that he has built up. Instead he is caught up with thoughts of having an affair with Sarah. This loss of control is also exhibited in Alex. At first, she was an uptight intellectual, who was focused completing her dissertation but through exposure to Ian and Jane’s lifestyle she began experimenting with new feelings and emotions that she never knew existed. Laurel Canyon can be viewed as a chick flick because it is filled with emotions and issues that each character must go through in order to have a better understanding of who they are. Although I do not believe that they had a happy ending, they all went through a period of renewal. In the end I believe that Sam and Jane’s relationship was in a better place than it had been before.