A title with multiple meanings tied up neatly with a bow of compassion and an abundance of thriving and a bit of merely surviving. Relative was unlike anything I ever experienced as my existence as a human on this earth. You see, there was every movie that I saw before and now there is Relative, the bench mark for every movie I see from here on out. The way the characters went flowing through the scenes and the delicious conversations they had my full attention, my favorite quote being "I could drink a case of you and still be on my feet", a statement that brought the film to new heights. There were many memorable lines, another being about how marriage is just putting one foot in front of the other. Such well fleshed out characters all gave a heartbeat to this film. (It is so rare to have characters that all have an individual personality but meld as a unit also.) This gem. This work of art. I am overwhelmed with everything that this movie made me feel about life, love, family, and what it means to exist, grow up, change, and do that within a fluid unit. Truly, I am unable to fully put into words the way the cinematographer was able to convince me of the pure beauty of the simple and make the ordinary the extraordinary. I was in love with the piano 🎹 pieces that were selected for this film. It was delightful. The house and settings were simply breathtaking and their own characters in their own right. Growing up in the suburbs and traveling through the city often, I know that blue line stop, I know Old Orchard Road. It was magnificent the way the characters played off each other and something like a graduation to bring the family together brought a genuine and raw quality of what it means to grow up. Do we ever really "grow up?" The movie was a delight to me from start to finish. I wanted to rewatch it the moment it ended. That is the hallmark of a masterpiece.
