But sometimes the impossible is simply impossible, Alice

Originally written June 3rd. Delayed posting. 

We saw Alice Through the Looking Glass last weekend at the IMAX theater. The real IMAX theater at World Golf Village, not the one they call an IMAX at AMC.
I never would have gone- it's too far away when there is a movie theater down the street, it's not my genre, it's too much $$, and if you give me 30 seconds I can come up with twelve more reasons. It's not actually that much money. But as it turned out I won tickets in a giveaway from Jax Moms Blog. (Thanks, JMB!) And since I couldn't excuse my way out of it in the name of not spending money, and because my counseling homework has been to do different things, we went together. A family outing. It took the pressure off that it wasn't on my dime and that my counselor said I didn't have to enjoy new things, just try something outside of our normal routine. I'm sure it sounds silly, but I truly was freed up to enjoy the evening, since it didn't matter if I did or not.
We had a great time! The real IMAX theater is impressive, it wasn't crowded, plus the movie was in 3D, and it's an incredible movie. It's remarkably well done, you should definitely see it.
The thing about Alice Through the Looking Glass is it's not actually about a trippy wonderland. The same way Harry Potter isn't actually about wizards. Alice is about life and loss and time and love and forgiveness and holding on and letting go. They just use wonderland and its characters to explore the things we struggle with in life. It is powerful art.
(Spoiler alert? I guess? Not really. I don't know. Look, it's disney and some variation of this plot point is in every movie they make, but I'm going to talk about the artistic portrayal of it, not the plot itself.)
There is a scene towards the end of Alice where everything seems ruined. The audio visual sequence is captivating as it gets more and more drawn out, as everything through space and time becomes ruined. It is all encompassing as it builds and builds and builds until you as a viewer feel the hopelessness that there is nothing left untouched by the ruins. Everything, everything that ever was in any reality or dimension has crumbled to rust. And there is no going forward from there. It's just done. Finished. Ruined.
And as I sat there taking it in, I thought, "That looks like what grief feels like." That is not the parallel the creators were drawing at that moment, but it is where loss leaves you. It is hopeless, it is finished, everything that ever was is ruined and nothing more will ever be. I'm not arguing that as a state of reality, just as the feeling of grief.
I am not a visual artist. I know words are insufficient to communicate so much of what we feel (though I may try). I have not had the experience of art being so powerful as I did while watching Alice. Nature being moving and powerful? Yes. The human spirit? Yes. Books? Yes. Visual or audio visual art? No.
You should definitely see Alice Through the Looking Glass. It has so much to say about life.