Now and Then

Now and Then is a 1995 coming of age film about 4 girls spending a typical summer in their peaceful town. In between saving money for a tree house, understanding boys, and dealing with family problems. They find a cracked tombstone of a boy called "Dear Johnny" while sneaking inside the local cemetery. Believing they disturbed his spirit they vowed to find out what happened to him.

Soon they realize that their small town and everything they had come to know is suddenly not as perfect as they thought. They learn that there are no normal families. That there is more to a person than what we see on the surface. And pain, suffering & violence existed.

"We all used to try so hard to fit in. We wanted to look exactly alike, do all the same things, practically be the same person, but when we weren't looking that all changed. The tree house was supposed to bring us more independence, but what the summer actually brought was independence from each other."

I remember seeing this movie when I was 12 and it showed me that it was ok to feel what I was feeling, that other people felt the same way I did. Seeing this movie again as an adult I feel I understand fully what it was trying to teach, much the same way the older Samantha realized late in life what Crazy Pete was trying to tell her.

Crazy Pete: "Well Samantha, things will happen in your life that you can't stop but that's no reason to shut out the world. There's a purpose for the good and for the bad."

Older Samantha narrating: "He gave me the only gift he could. The lesson that had taken him a lifetime to learn. And although I understood the importance of his words. It's only now looking back that I understand their meaning."