"Melissa & Men"
Melissa recalls how each picture was taken, but not what significance it holds now as part of a larger body of work.
It doesn't help that her assistant wants to be just like her when she gets to be "her age".
The night before the big show her frustration is at a peak as she stares at her photos.
"They just don't connect! A show's supposed to have a theme, isn't it? Isn't it?!"
Cindy doesn't understand her frustration. "Well, I don't know. I--I kinda see a theme!"
Melissa looks skeptical, but Cindy continues: "It's like, there's all these, well, men! Mostly. But they're, they're sort of not all there. Y'know, because it's kind of just like hands, or like, pieces, y'know, like a puzzle or something. It's like, it's like you wanna, you wanna figure it out, y'know, who they are, what they're doing here, because, because something does connect them, something connects them, and it's you!"
"I mean, that's sorta the theme."
Melissa looks stunned. Cindy presents her with a yellow rose in honor of her show, and wishes she could only accomplish half as much (when she reaches her age--yeah, she said it again! Melissa doesn't mind as much this time).
Note Cindy's elaborate charm-bracelet-like earring in the pictures above. Noelle likes symbolic jewelry, but I have no idea what that signifies, if anything! Perhaps that there's more going on inside than we suspect? An inner eye capable of perceiving beyond her years? She did manage to make sense of everything, after all.
The big show is a hit with the critics, though personal disappointments await Melissa. Cindy greets her at the door wearing glasses, though unlike Melissa's, they're probably just a fashion statement. One might also suspect they represent Cindy's newly-revealed wisdom and maturity, which have taken Melissa somewhat aback. Interestingly, Cindy seems to know more than she does at this party, like who the important people are, and what the critics are saying. Later, we'll see Melissa sitting alone in the gallery's cartoonish bathroom, like a child avoiding conflict, while her family and friends review her incomplete relationships hanging on the walls.
The highly influential critic Frank Foote stops by to give Melissa his professional opinion. In a word: "Sensuous"! That's got to be good, thinks Cindy.
The ending looks bittersweet. Her boyfriend Lee (Corey), didn't show up for the party, and an old high-school infatuation shows up married. In the picture above, Cindy's doubts about her fiance seemed resolved, as Melissa watches her pulling him away from the party, and towards a blissful evening somewhere else. It's as though Melissa's youth walked out the door as well.
She finds herself in an empty gallery, when suddenly the door swings open. Lee enters, out of breath, holding a rose for her--this one's red. He feels guilty about being late. But Melissa thinks his timing couldn't be better.
