One More Time

On her 40^th birthday, a woman makes a wish to be celebrating her 18^th instead. Later that day, she gets into an accident which, thereafter, she experiences a recycling of the same day once she gets back to her youth!

Thinking that she was experiencing her own version of Groundhog Day, Amelia (our main character) tries all she could to be a better person; being great to her friends and obeying her parents – basically, everything she thought of. It did not work.

That meant that she did not solve whatever puzzle was preventing her from getting back to either her current time or moving on to heaven, in the case that she had died! But what could this puzzle be?

 

When Amelia was celebrating her 40^th at a bar, in had walked another lady, who was also celebrating her 40^th. She came to pick up her pizzas that she had ordered for the party. This woman was an acquaintance of Amelia’s. They knew each other but at the time we did not know the extent of their relationship. What we do know is that they had not seen each other for a long time, probably not since their high school days. The friend, Fiona, had just moved back to town and it seems she is a successful musician, having just finished a tour.

The bar tender asks Amelia about her relationship with Fiona. She mentions that they were childhood friends, who had buried a time capsule on their tenth birthday with plans to dig it up on their 18^th. Amelia says that they did not get a chance to dig it up having drifted apart before that fated day. Seeing as she was getting drunk and it was only middle of the day, the bartender suggested to Amelia to go have some fresh air, which Amelia caught on meaning that he was suggesting she go dig up the capsule.

And so, Amelia heads up the hill to dig up the capsule. She first checks her own wish, which was to be cool. A wish that was granted, as, in high school, she really was popular. Next, she picks Fiona’s note to read her wish but before she opens it up, Fate has other ideas! A strong wind blows the note out of her hand, so she runs after it trying desperately to catch it.

Once she does, as she is about to open it, she never gets the chance because once again fate intervenes by throwing a literal truck at her as she was standing right in the middle of a country road.

When Amelia wakes up, she finds herself in her bed, her parents surprising her with a birthday wakeup call wishing her sweet 18! Amelia had just travelled back in time to her 18-year-old self. Her wish had been granted! And just like we would all be, were we her, she does nothing but fully enjoy the opportunity to relive her best period!

Amelia is not a bitch though, so as I mentioned, she does think of the possibility that there was a reason as to why she went back in time and why she re-lived the same day. The first person she talks to about her predicament and asks for help from is Fiona. You could tell that there was tension between the two. We were just not sure exactly why.

It is Fiona who tells her about the Groundhog Day movie, which Amelia uses as her guide to try and get out of the loop! Following the same formula as the mentioned movie does not go according to plan because Amelia’s situation was different from that movie’s main character. She herself did not even know what it was. In fact, not even I the audience knew what it was.

That is the reason why I skipped through the first minutes the first time watching but of course, just as always, I went back and soaked in every minute of the movie from the beginning.

We do not find out the mystery that Amelia had to solve to get out of the loop until much later in the movie. But me being me, you all know that means that I am going to spoil it right now. In fact, I already did!

Amelia got caught in this loop and got in the accident because she was trying to read Fiona’s wish from their time capsule. That meant that she came back to that time to fulfil their promise of opening the capsule when they had turned 18 years of age. But since at 18 Amelia was not friends with Fiona anymore, that added the challenge of getting back in Fiona’s good graces so they could fulfill their promise to each other.

Things do not work out in that regard, what with Fiona forgetting everything after the end of each day and the two starting out again on stranger terms.

Amelia does try her best to patch things up with Fiona in almost every iteration, but success ends up being far from her reach. In the last one, she does finally remember the most important thing that was supposed to happen on her 18^th birthday and so Amelia asks Fiona to go and dig up their time capsule.

Unfortunately, Fiona turned her down as they had grown far from each other up to their 18^th. Ameila decides to go and dig up the time capsule by herself. She reads her wish just fine but when she gets to Fiona’s it’s almost a repeat of the first time; because Fiona surprises her by showing up and when she saw that Amelia was about to read her wish, she tries to stop her, but Amelia does not give let fate get in the way this time!

Amelia reads Fiona’s note. She finds out what Fiona’s wish was when they were ten. Interestingly, in one of the loops, she almost figures out Fiona’s secret when she watches a video recording of their 10^th birthday on which they made their promise. In that video, Fiona watches her with so much longing and love that I am amazed Amelia did not figure it out even then.

“I WISH AMELIA WAS IN LOVE WITH ME”

The quote above was what was written on Fiona’s note in the time capsule. It would be an understatement to say that the look on Amelia’s face after she read the note was priceless! Fiona runs away after Amelia reads the note because she was afraid of what her reaction would be. Just like in the current timeline, Amelia runs after Fiona and just like before, she gets into another accident.

Amelia is woken up by the passengers of the party truck that hit her. As fate would have it, the driver of the truck was her high school boyfriend, who was hilariously followed by Nelly’s ‘Hot in Here’ as the background music whenever he appeared.

This is the thing; you see, Amelia was as straight as they come. While I did say she almost figured out that Fiona was in love with her as she watched a compilation of their young birthdays, she never picked up on it.

During her loops I believe that is when she started developing feelings for Fiona, but I doubt she knew Fiona loved her. There were many moments where she was staring at Fiona with these looks that just screamed feelings.

It is never too late to catch up or fall in love. It took Amelia 40 years to realize her true love while it took Fiona the same amount of time for her feelings to be realized! While it is rare, and a miracle, that Fiona had not moved on, especially since she had a hell of a time in high school thanks to Amelia – the girls she had been in love with, it is very moving that Fiona hung on for so long.

Amelia had even given up thinking that it was too late, and she thought that Fiona was taken after crushing her birthday party when she got back to the real world and found Fiona playing with a child, whom she believed to be Fiona’s.

Thankfully that was not the case. As she went back to the place, they had buried their time capsule, Amelia seats on a bench there, all emo! She does not even open the box, not that she needed to, seeing as she already knew what was inside from her time-travel, but as she sat there, lost in her woes, she gets a surprise visit from Fiona, who had seen her literally crashing her party and knew where Amelia would be going.

The two, now grown-ups, finally sit down and have the talk! Fiona concludes that Amelia has read her note when she finds her with the capsule in her hands sitting there on the bench. Amelia, after reflecting on her feelings and her life, confesses her feelings to Fiona and her stupidity for not realizing Fiona’s feelings for her all this time and she also apologies for ghosting Fiona in their high school days. She wishes that she could start over so she could do things differently. She wants to have Fiona in her life!

Fiona feels the same way, as she too has regrets about not having had Amelia in her life and so she says that she too still wants Amelia in her life. With the blessings of Amelia’s parents, who had just been on video call with the two, they finally reciprocate their feelings for one another, and they are sure to spend the rest of their lives together.

The movie ends with the two sitting there in happiness, looking over the landscape below!

And that was it. No hand holding, no kisses just pure emotion!

You know, I am realizing now that recently I have seen a lot of projects like this one. It’s as if writers got a memo to treat relationships just like any other! No need to prove a point by spoon feeding. There does not have to be physical intimacy for people to be in love! Love in and of itself is ethereal, something spiritual! It does not have to be physically proven!

Those are my favorite stories now! If I need physical proof of attraction, I can just go watch porn! At this stage in life, I have already seen enough sexy relationships and kisses that I don’t get excited by them anymore! I now prefer relationships with emotions that are there just like love is there. You can feel the love and if you are paying attention, even see it but within the characters’ eyes and actions. No need for make-out scenes or anything!

I love it!

The movie stars Hedda Stiernstedt as Amelia and Tove Edfeldt as adult Sofia with Miriam Ingrid as 18 years old Sofia. It’s out now on the interwebs so if you are interested, go check it out! Totally recommended by yours truly!

Ja