前进天堂

城市几起几落，没有战争也没有奇迹，你行走在其中，会不会忘记还有期待和梦想。

“爱尔兰移民约翰尼和莎拉带着他们的两个女儿，满怀希望地来到美国。当行走在充满着各种奇怪新鲜声音的纽约曼哈顿大街上时，他们便开始了充满冒险的生活。炫目的未来在等待着这个家庭，但是他们首先必须忘记过去。”他们远离爱尔兰，是不是想让熟悉的城市忘记自己，忘记自己的丧子之痛。可是即使隔着千山万水，他们还是发现在新生活的背后依然会看见放大的曾经的记忆。

两个女儿的扮演者纯真可爱。音乐也非常棒。大女儿Christy在片中许了三个愿望，你看着它们实现的时候真是心酸，许第二个愿前真是让人揪心。片子不长，但温情感人。虽然生活艰难，但这个移民家庭还是在陌生城市坚韧地生活，守着亲情、希望、信念、奇迹与爱。

电影的表现手法很隐忍，又很坚持，无声的挣扎，“脆弱”的大人和“坚强”的小孩，感人的诉说。我不知道Frankie Sheriden是不是导演的儿子，但可以感觉到他通过电影温柔的看着Frankie：）

一个爱尔兰家庭经历了丧子之痛，带着2个女儿来到了新的国度，希望忘记过去，重新开始。可是，生活并不是他们想像的如意：父母为生计疲于奔命；在游乐场为了得到女儿想要的玩具，父亲输掉了最后一个硬币；妻子怀孕了，让父亲又想起了逝去的儿子。过去的伤痛一阵阵袭来，挥之不去，也让一家人的生活处于紧张崩溃的边缘。

幸好，大女儿有着远胜于成人的乐观、坚强和信念，她为这个家默默的祈祷，也坚信自己的三个愿望能实现。Halloween之夜，两个小女孩喊着Trick or treat敲开了焦躁暴虐的邻居画家的门，她们的纯真安抚了身患AIDS的绝望的邻居，使他逐渐融入了这个家庭，平静的度过了人生的最后一程，也给父母带来了久违的理解和爱。当父亲终于向小儿子Frankie告别的时候，一家人的梦想开始照进现实了。

看这部片子，被真切的生活细节打动，也被小女孩的纯真坚忍折服。每个人都会遇到各种各样的挫折伤痛，逃避不是办法，忘记只是自欺欺人。其实没有什么过不去的坎，勇敢面对过去，坚持信念，一定会到我们期望的天堂！

PS: 大女儿在学校演出中的这首Desperado，完全不同于原唱Eagles沧桑奔放的西部风情，清澈纯真。
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmdpLTyLoLc

After a long journey, finally the Sullivan family enters the United States. The director chooses to start the story at this moment. The moment for the family may be a chance to restart to some degree. And also to us spectators, it can be an easy resource to look into the protagonists’ life.

Johnny and Sarah, with their daughters Christy and Ariel, have settled in a tenement in Manhattan which is occupied by drug addicts and transvestites. However, they are still filled with joy. Sarah finds a job in a restaurant as a waitress to support the family while Johnny can go on taking part in screen test to try to get a role. Nevertheless, Johnny can never find the emotions that the stage director has expected. So he has faced a lot of failures.

With the story promoting, we are told that there is a heavy stone hanging over the family. It’s the accidental death of the young son Frankie. Everybody in the family feels sorrow and guilty. Though they seldom mention it, they haven’t forgotten it for even one minute. That’s the reason why Johnny can’t feel true feelings----he had lost them all at his son’s death. And the movie here brings out an other important protagonist---the Nigerian artist and photographer Mateo. His early actions make us think he is a ferocious guy. But the turning point comes at the Halloween Day. Christy and Ariel knock Mateo’s door for the tradition “thick or treat”. Mateo has treated the girls friendly. This makes the family gradually accept this black friend, even knowing he is dying of AIDS.

Sarah is pregnant again at the risk of losing her life. Mateo falls down stairs and his life is in an emergency situation. Finally, on the one hand a baby is born prematurely and in poor health. On the other hand, Mateo pays off the family’s hospital bill before he passes away. And at last, with the birth of the new baby and the death of Mateo, Johnny finally gets over with the Frankie thing and recovers the ability of feeling things.

Life goes on.

Despite of the various complicated emotions, at my point of view, love is the key word in defining the theme of this movie. Because of loving Frankie, the family has been in deep desperate. Because of loving his wife and daughters, Johnny tried to thrown the ball to the hall over and over again. Because of loving the family, Mateo has learnt how to open his heart and treat others kindly. Love exists everywhere, connecting the Sullivan family, the white and the black, the death and the alive. Love, like warm sunshine, has filled the crevices of people’s hearts.

Just as the <Bible > says:” Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never ends”.

Among the conspicuous protagonists, I prefer Christy most. Most people may love Ariel more for she is actually a cute and active girl. Compared with her, Christy seems to be inner going, silent and mature. With less unconscious words and less impulsive actions, Christy has adopted the camcorder to hide herself behind the lens. However, she is only a child. She believes she has been granted three wishes by her dead brother. She used to talk to Frankie at night until she realized she was talking to herself. She gave Mateo the CPR at once not considering his AIDS. She is used to keeping her feeling in her heart in order to comfort her parents. People are easily interested in Ariel. On the contrary, Christy’s sensibility demand is often ignored. This is an important factor that has influenced her character. All in all, she is a little girl who is kind-hearted, sensible and lonely. She is like the moon, not dazzling as the sun, still bringing the surrounding light quietly.

As her singing in the movie:
” Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be raining', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late”

That’s also what I have found from the movie. Love is a boat, driving our migratory hearts landing home.

Time froze when Dad was throwing those balls. I put my heart and soul just want him to make it. I really thought he might got nothing and the family would lose everything. It was so depressed when I heard the 'Bang', which means that he didn't make it. We can't see the result but only listen to the sound. Great chapter. I gotta say.

Keep a hope. One can always work it out.