Laurel Canyon

Laurel Canyon was a much more entertaining movie than The Piano! I liked the movie. It was only predictable to a certain exten. I was wrong about how I thought it would end. From the beginning, when Sam pulls his car up and looks into the window to the car next to him I knew that something was going to happen between him and Sarah. It also did not take long for me to guess that there would be something between Alex and Ian. However, I had predicted that Alex and Ian were going to sleep together and so were Sam and Sarah. I’m glad that I was wrong. Alex started out as being the quiet, innocent smart girl that quickly said “no thanks” to drinks and drugs. Throughout her stay at Janes house, she lightens up and goes beyond her innocent boundaries. I don’t blame her at all for being a little rebellious. She obviously is not into the same lifestyle as Jane and her friends but why not experiment? I wasn’t surprised that she did, because her life with Sam isn’t exactly exciting at the time and it doesn’t seem fulfilling either. Now lets be honest, Sam and Alex have a bleak sex life together. Once they move into Jane’s house not only does their sex life disappear, but they only get to see each other right before they go to sleep. With Sam, Alex is safe and they are in a serious and mature relationship. It is quite obvious that Alex is not completely comfortable with Sarah and Sam becoming all buddy-buddy. Alex is spending all of her time at the house and Sam is spending all his time at the hospital. Ian is constantly flirting with Alex and why would any girl not accept it? He has the bad boy image and on top of that, he has a British accent! By barely seeing Sam, she naturally is attracted to the bad boy, Ian, as a rebellious fling. However, I was glad that the director did not have the two sleep together because I feel like that would have been way out of her character. As for Sam, I feel like his feelings towards Sarah were similar to Alex’s feelings towards Ian. Sam is obviously attracted to her, she is more accomplished than he is and she has an accent (which I found annoying, but he probably liked). Its clear that Sam is not accepting his mothers behavior (which is nothing new for him), but now Alex is starting to become influenced by her as well. Sam is in a vulnerable place in his life, which is why he begins to give in to Sarah. He is missing good sex from his relationship with Alex, and wants to fall into bed with Sarah. I was very impressed with the directors’ choice in not having Sarah and Sam sleep together, and for having Alex and Sam end up together. I felt like the director portrayed the men and the women equal in this movie. Alex and Sam cheated on each other only by kissing and nothing more. Both the men and the women were making equal mistakes and bad choices.