Under the Greenwood Tree (2005)

A period drama based on the book by Thomas Hardy, turns sensibility on its head as we watch Fancy Day return from a life of upper-class education to her hometown. Her mother had married "down" and lost all claim to her family's fortune. So, her father has aspired to give her the education and gentility required to marry into the wealthier class. But, he doesn't foresee the affect the storekeeper's son, Dick Dewey, will have on her nor the affect her coming will have on the entire town.

Peer pressure is something that will always be a factor in our choices, but the choices women had for them in earlier time periods were greatly limited. Fancy is educated and holds a position as the village teacher. This independence combined with her unusual circumstances of station - riding the fence, so to speak - affords her the opportunity to decline several offers of marriage in favor of LOVE.

The irony here is that, so many of these period works that are so popular today glorify the ideal of marrying for love instead of money or station and, now how many people divorce because the "love" doesn't live up to expectations? It waxes and wanes, but doesn't seem able to grow again during times when stress and distance stretch before us.

There is a moment in the movie, when Mr. Dewey asks his wife if she had been happy with him because he was never an ambitious man and hadn't expanded their business or improved their fortunes as his son was working to do. The scene looked very much like the one from Fiddler on the Roof, but the outcome was different. Mrs. Dewey threw a chubby, middle-aged arm around her husband and planted a passionate kiss on his mouth saying, "You are all the man I ever wanted and all the love to go with it." One can tell from the furnishings around them, that life has not been easy - though not desperately difficult either - but, Mrs. Dewey hadn't expected ease, nor timelessness, nor perfection and she is happy still.

Perhaps, this is where we find our greatest lesson. Life is work and pain and joy and bliss and tears and struggles. If we are thankful, living in each moment - one at a time - our disappointments will be few and we will be able to bear the weight of it all together.