I read and loved The Disaster Artist, and one of the reasons was the ending. Greg Sestero reflects on Tommy Wiseau at the premiere of The Room, just before the lights go down. It's a powerful moment, and I'll put it down below if anyone wants to read it.
The movie ending, I didn't expect to deviate much from this. I 'have' always wondered in a sick and inevitable way what Tommy must have felt like when the audience began to watch and react to The Room. I don't know if this is quote-unquote exactly what happened at the premiere, but Wiseau and Sestero both supported the production of the movie adaptation.
The moment I feel like I truly understand.... about half of what Tommy Wiseau is about continues on to show him broken down and damn near defeated by a lot of people laughing at his movie. Then Greg, after everything good and terrible Tommy did over the course of their chaotic friendship, steps in to encourage him to embrace what comes and be proud of his work anyway.
I wasn't expecting that, and it's a great scene for the Franco brothers and gives me a better idea of why Wiseau was quick to call the film a 'black comedy'. Yeah, he's just saving face and selling DVDs and underwear at the end of the day, but everyone's having fun and maybe he is too. That's far from the worst thing in the world.
"I am glad you are here." Tommy whispered to me. "I could never do project without you."
The Room’s premiere was testament to Tommy’s unrelenting drive and determination. He’d inflict his vision on the world whether the world wanted it or not. He was a movie star whether the world saw it or not. In getting here, Tommy had sometimes been destructive and sometimes cruel. But how could I—how could anyone—not be moved by Tommy, who’d fought so hard against the unforgiving confines of his star-crossed life?
The Room, I already knew, was a lot of things. A bad film, a funny film, a bizarre film, a glorious film, a vain film, an absurd film, an incompetent film, a powerful film, a fascinating film, a disastrous film, an independent film, an inexplicable film, and finally, a brave film. Sitting there in the theater, I let myself feel proud of Tommy, who believed his movie was a first-rate emotional drama that contained all his most profound ideas about life.
In that regard, The Room was Tommy, and is Tommy—a man who remains the grandest and most sincere dreamer I’ve ever known. This is, ultimately, what redeems his immensely conflicted and complicated darkness. In the end, Tommy made me realize that you decide who you become. He also made me realize what a mixed blessing that can be.
Although I knew Tommy’s film wasn’t going to be received the way he wanted it to be that night, I hoped he’d be able to recognize how incredible this experience really was. When I looked over at him, I couldn’t help but see a vision of the young boy who peered through a movie theater’s cracked door in Eastern Europe, newly in awe of life’s possibilities. Tommy removed his sunglasses and glanced back at me. He had tears in his eyes. He smiled, nodded, and turned toward the screen.
It wasn’t often that you got to see a man whose dream was literally about to come true, but then the lights went down, and I couldn’t see him anymore.
Submitted December 07, 2017 at 12:09PM by TheresOnly1GaryKing http://ift.tt/2k4EDhh
