Whenever
I see an independent film, I’m always shocked by the cinematography but even
more so by the story. We buy tickets to movies that we’ve heard the story of
over and over again. More often than not, they are glorified stories that all
have happy endings – a solution for the problem. It’s important thought to be
different and write something real in a world where some stories have started
to feel forced and repetitive. What is great about the Athena Cinema is that
you can see beautifully created movies with stories that are different for
free.
In
Small Beautifully Moving Parts, we are introduced to a woman, Sarah
Sparks, played by Anna Margaret Hollyman, a beautiful and talented actress who
is real and, in ways, reminds me of myself. Sarah is interested in how
everything works – technology specifically. She can take apart anything with
wires and fix it. She does this throughout the movie when she goes to visit her
sister and her dad. When Sarah learns that she is pregnant, she begins to
question how motherhood works. She’s not exactly excited and starts to wonder if
her lack of anticipation has anything to do with her mother leaving her, her
sister and her father when Sarah was just a teenager.
Learning
that Sarah doesn’t talk to her mother isn’t exactly surprising once we find
out. She learns that her mother has gone “off the grid” and Hollyman’s
character won’t be able to find her mother (played by Mary Beth Pell) easily
but that doesn’t stop her. She ventures to the middle of nowhere-Arizona to
find her mom who, we learn, has taken a vow of silence. Luckily, her mother
breaks the vow and talks to Sarah, offering her tea and conversation. Sarah
finally gets what she wants, a chance to sit with her mom and ask her the
questions about motherhood that she’s wanted to ask.
But
Sarah doesn’t get the answers she wants. She seems grateful for the time with
her mom but knows that nothing has changed between her and her mom. She leaves
disheartened only to find that her husband has come to find her. What is great
about this ending is that the people who truly care for her – her husband, her
sister, her sister-in-law, and her father – were there for her throughout the
movie, constantly showing their love and support for her and her baby. Sarah is
a very static character, there is not much growth to her, or her costars,
besides learning that she has to make her own mistakes with her husband because
raising a child is not like fixing a machine or analyzing how a piece of
equipment works; there aren’t any right answers.
This
movie was very simple but real and relatable. In the beginning, Sarah worries
if she will make a good mom, if she even wants kids. This is the point I’m at
in my life. However, Sarah soon sees that she has support around her even
without her mom in her life, and that’s how she knows she will make it through.
It goes back to the saying we hear when raising a child, “it takes a village.”
