Change of Scenery

The old adage is true that wherever you go, you take your old baggage with you, so it makes sense that in 2016 when my spouse died after a three-year battle with cancer, I’d never see life quite the same way again. For me watching someone I love die brought into clear focus the things that matter most in life: how to love, how to live your life with purpose and how to appreciate everyday to it’s fullest because you never know when the ones your closest to will suddenly be gone or when you yourself might be facing your own mortality.

Change of Scenery is not just a story about lost love, it’s a story about starting over and doing so in a way that is unconventional. It’s about facing the world again and having the courage to deal with whatever that may mean. While the scene I am about to describe does not play in the film, I can remember a few weeks after my partner died going out in public for the first time. I was invited by a friend to a small gathering and there was a performer who was quite comedic that we ended up seeing. I can remember laughing at one or two of the jokes and thinking was it too soon to laugh again, would people think I was being insensitive because I appeared to not be in mourning. For a period of close to a year everywhere I seemed to go in the small village where we’d made our life together people would constantly ask how I was doing, how was I holding up. This would happen everywhere I went, at the bank, at the market, at art openings, you name it. It was nice to think that people cared about me, but honestly I did not want to answer this question to every person who ever saw us together and because of it I often stayed home. Back in New York City I could get away from these inquiries, from people knowing everything about me. It was a relief that I could disappear into; a way to escape my past. While the incidents I’m describing do not enter into Change of Scenery per se, these feelings very much permeate Julia’s character subconsciously in the scenes when she’s back in her place of work and going to the gay bar.

While the heart of Change of Scenery is really about fulfilling a dying promise it is clear that the film’s main character, Julia is not going to have an easy go of it because love lost just hurts and in order for it not to she needs to open up herself to others again. The twist is that Julia ends up surprising herself in the process of moving on by who she finds herself attracted to and perhaps this is the greatest message of all in the film, the message that love can be fluid and that is okay and that you often find what you need in life when you least expect it the most.