Still thinking about Moonlight weeks after seeing it.
Wondering, Who would Chiron be, if he had known love, support, acceptance, stability, safety, intimacy, and touch in his life? If only he knew the profoundly transformative experience of mutual recognition. (Who would you be?) A person can go mad thinking about these things. But there’s no doubt they can make all the difference.
I came across a HuffPo article, What Becomes of Chiron After Moonlight Ends, According To The Film’s Cast. Barry Jenkins, the film’s writer/director, says,
I do think he’s more himself [after the film ends] than he ever is in the film we see–that, I’m absolutely, 1000 percent sure of. Whether that’s married to Kevin, I can’t say. He’s a person who had a very difficult childhood and doesn’t have a lot of experience in relationships, so imagine trying to come home to that person seven days a week. What a fucking mess.
Mahershala Ali, who plays Juan in the film, says,
I see him having softened. He’s had to put on a lot of armor to make it through the crucible of adolescence… and I think Kevin has the last relationship or element or piece of information that he needs to finally open up to become who he actually needs to be. I have a lot of hope for him.
And Trevante Rhodes, who plays the adult Chiron, says,
I think about love on a scale from 1 to 10. Most of us find a 6 or a 7, and that’s why we have divorce. It’s the truth. We settle for that 6 or 7. But I like to think Kevin is Chiron’s 10. He’s found that and he realizes that there’s no reason to settle for a 6 or a 7 because, “I know this person is my 10. Whether or not this person believes I’m his 10, I’m going to devote my life to this person entirely.” That’s why the line where he says, “You’re the only man that’s ever touched me,” for me, was the most amazing, most beautiful thing I’ve seen in cinema, period. Because that’s what we strive for as people, to find that one person because they’re there. If Kevin doesn’t feel that they should be together, Chiron is just going to die a miserable person because that’s his person and he won’t settle for anything else. But I like to think they’re together, walking in Central Park hand-in-hand when they’re 90 years old.
These answers all add up to the dream, don’t they? For me they do. That rare person who brings your defenses down, someone you can feel vulnerable with. Someone who understands you’ve had a different kind of life, who knows you don’t have much experience and that you’re gonna be a bit of a mess sometimes, a fuck-up, that you’re not always gonna know what to say or do, but who still sees you as worth being with, worth fighting for, and who you see as worth being with and worth fighting for, too.