By Chris Toronyi
Character. Depth. Belief. And let's throw in some passion.
We've seen it from our Club this season when we look to have driven ourselves into the ground. Maybe not played at our best. But somehow we've found it when we needed it most.
I am talking about our beautiful football Club to a degree, but I'm also talking about the movie 'her', which I finished watching last night. Beautifully acted by Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams, and directed and written by one of the most creative, thought provoking storytellers of our generation: Spike Jonze.
From the beginning you are thrown into Joaquin's character's world of trying to move forward, but difficult to do given his past life with the beautiful, soon to be ex-wife played by Rooney Mara - the same Mara that played Lisbeth Salander in Fincher's 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. (note: Mara's mother's family founded the Pittsburgh Steelers, hence the name Rooney, and her father's family founded the New York Giants. Use that in trivia.)
But back to Joaquin's character. He's a bit lost, sees and feels glimpses of what he must do. But this also opens up his heart and mind to outside forces, foreign forces that wish to shape him. It's a fight, but a fight that has a very strong pull. Sound familiar.
He succumbs to these forces, but in the end his character and his belief are reshaped but his loss. What you find - not only in the characters, but in the performances - are rich, believable people. The writing, the acting and the story are so original and such high quality. You're watching the movie, but also reflecting on your own relationships.
Without this amazing premise, rich characters written by Mr. Jonze, and without the incredible acting performances, we would be left with something that we've seen and experienced before. We would have just another love story. It wouldn't entertain and it wouldn't provoke emotions of a relationship. Or what we mean to each other or how we communicate. The combination of character, depth, belief and passion do give us something special. It gives us something to talk about and adds something that adds to our lives.
I also think we're seeing these elements in our team - just look at Per's reaction to our first goal against Cardiff City and his embrace of KOS after the final whistle. That's passion, yo!
It's magical. It's beautiful.
Happy New Year to all.
On the podcast this week, but we'll back next week with Matt Lucas and Danny Karbassiyoon where we'll recap the December run, talk needs and look ahead to the weekend. You can find the show at www.ArsenalAmericaPodcast.com, iTunes and you can also grab the RSS Feed. Thanks for listening.
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'Stateside Gooner' Chris Toronyi is a longtime Arsenal supporter and the host of The Arsenal America podcast. You can read more of Chris' thoughts on Twitter.
The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Arsenal Football Club or Arsenal Broadband Ltd.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
