George Lucas, world-renowned for being the creator of the Star Wars universe, brought us a beautiful love story based on William Shakespeare's comedy, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," called Strange Magic in 2015. This film features iconic rock songs from the 1960s onwards, telling the story of Marianne (Evan Rachel Wood), princess of the Fairy Kingdom, and the Bog King (Alan Cumming), ruler of the Dark Forest.
The narrative is simple but moving: Marianne, betrayed by her (handsome and shallow) fiancé on her wedding day, undergoes a transformation and decides to be who she really is, a fairy who faces her own battles with determination and depends on no one. She decided not to fall in love anymore.
On the other hand, we have the Bog King, who is introduced as the "villain" of the story and is holding the Sugar Plum fairy prisoner because of a misfortune he suffered as a result of a love potion she created. Since then, Bog forbids love in the Dark Forest, as well as the creation of the love potion. He decided not to fall in love anymore.
One night, a series of events revolving around the creation of a new love potion would pit Bog and Marianne against each other as enemies...
...without suspecting that it's more what they have in common than what makes them different.
Bog and Marianne don't fall in love at first sight like in a common fairy tale. They meet in adverse circumstances, confront each other, gain respect for each other and progressively understand that they are similar because they have both suffered in the past, thus creating a bond and developing an attraction for each other.
The message of the film is very clear: infatuation is not the same as love. True love is not born easily, product of a potion that makes you feel a false love for someone; it comes from understanding, affection, trust and connection with the other, but more than anything else: it comes from the freedom to be ourselves with the person we love...
"Because, after all, everybody deserves to be loved."
