What We Want

For some reason lately, a movie I saw years ago keeps popping into my head, Y Tu Mama Tambien.

It's about a woman in a marriage that would appear on the surface to be happy. She's beautiful; he's good looking. But she's unhappy.

At a sporting event, she meets a younger guy who's interested in her. He asks her to go on a road trip with him and his friend. At first she blows him off. How silly. A road trip with a guy barely in college.

The next day she gets a phone call. The viewer doesn't know what news she's getting, but we know it's life-changing. We've learned her husband has been cheating, and guess the call is proof.

She reaches out to the younger guy and takes him up on his offer. Where are we going, she asks. Not having expected her to agree to come, he makes something up, a beach called, Boca Del Cielo, heaven's mouth.

They drive off in a beat-up car, the two friends and the woman, ostensibly to this beach that doesn't even exist.

The woman has come on this trip because she wants to feel loved. She isn't loved in her marriage. And these guys are enthralled by her.

She sleeps with them both, each without knowing about the other, trying to feel what she's missing. But each attempt is a disappointment.

They drive and drive and she asks where the beach is. They say they're getting closer and they finally do arrive at a beach, called Boca Del Cielo. To their shock, the paradise they'd made up actually exists.

It's a pristine beach, untouched by tourists or economy. A family lives on the beach, a man and woman and their baby. They live naturally, fishing and eating what they find. They're happy.

The woman and younger men join the family. Playing in the water, resting in the sun.The woman falls in love with the family. She is finally happy.

When the guys are ready to leave, she tells them she's not going back. She plans to live the rest of her life here.

We flashback to the phone call she'd received. It was her doctor telling her her cancer diagnosis. She has only a few months to live.

We realize that agreeing to go on this trip was her way of giving the rest of her life meaning by achieving a feeling of being loved. If she felt loved, it would all be OK. She thought she'd get it from the men she slept with, but that didn't work.

She was only able to feel at peace when she was able to give love.