Excerpt from ‘A Gentle Rise and Fall’ |
Set in Boston a year prior to the 2004 curse-breaking World Series win, A Gentle Rise and Fall‘s narrative embraces this moment in history very thinly. The movie is about ups and downs in all shapes and forms, mainly the unsettled respective lives of the main characters Jacey and Red. The male protagonist of the love story, Red, is a huge Red Sox fan, and baseball in general. His love for the game is illustrated in various moments in the screenplay. He watches the game. A couple of times Red is aimlessly swinging a baseball bat, or rolling a baseball around in his hands. He is seen earlier too playing with a foam bat and ball with Willoughby, the son of a woman he was “involved” with. Red discusses the game sporadically with Marty, an elderly man at the nursing home. They share an enthusiasm, like many Red Sox fans of that time, that 2004 would be their year.
With Jacey, the female half in the love story, rolls her eyes at Red wwhen he mentions baseball, revealing his love for the sport. Jacey implies you ought to love baseball, if you are stuck in Boston. The very subject of sport spoken by Jacey is used in a similarly metaphorical sense later when she casually took an interest in the Patriots in conformity when she married her husband Duane. She does not particular like sport as much as she does not particularly like her husband. Jacey’s baseball reference to being stuck in Boston signals early on that she feels trapped in her marriage rather than Boston itself. When Red and Jacey are sadly forced to drift apart, they both in their own ways follow the Red Sox triumphant season, highlighting Jacey’s longing for Red. The feeling is indeed mutual. Will this be their year?
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