With Love and a Major Organ
A film like “With Love and a Major Organ,” for me, is why sticking with more well-known films is a mistake. Movies like this are intended to push us to look at the world differently, to discover something that is missing, and to help bring it to the world. It is unique, and yet, it is familiar, in the way screenwriter Julia Lederer and director Kim Albright show us a world where displaying emotions, and empathy, is seen as a positive for society, and how one woman tries to navigate it.
Anabel (Anna Maguire) is someone who lets her emotions guide her in life. That is a rarity in a world where everyone’s heart is made of objects, and self-care involves suppressing emotions. She has a best friend, is often late for her job as a Virtual Insurance broker, and feels a strong connection to a man she’s met in a park. The man is George (Hamza Haq), who is oddly unfeeling, unaware of the emotional impact he is having on her. After some emotional setbacks, Anabel rips out her heart, and gives it to George. But is that what is best for either of them?
There’s a very challenging balance that must be achieved between empathy for others and detachment if we’re going to survive life without feeling overwhelmed. Self-care is important, and sometimes, that can mean taking a step back from our emotions, but sometimes, we have to let ourselves feel them. In the age of social media, expressing our emotions can feel like a double-edged sword, especially at times of great conflict in the world. But it’s important for us to be able to have empathy for others; divestment from people can be in our best interest, but not if the price is the other person’s sense of faith in the relationships they’ve developed is shattered. In “With Love and a Major Organ,” Anabel seems to not be appreciated for how she shares herself emotionally, but in divesting herself of her emotions, is she the same person? Similarly for George, what will feeling more do for him? As much as we want other people to be at the same place as we are emotionally, that’s just not a probability at all times, and we have to allow for growth.
Lederer’s screenplay is not working in deep symbolism or thematic complexity- hearts being objects that can be broken is fairly straightforward- but what it allows is for us to meet the film where it is as Anabel’s story progresses, and to empathize with her. Our hearts, both in a physical and symbolic matter, are fragile, and must be handled with care. On the other side of the story is George, whose lack of outward emotions doesn’t make him less engaging; we can see why Anabel feels a connection to him. But when he begins to feel again with Anabel’s heart, it’s overwhelming, and eventually, it’s as self-destructive to him as divesting from her feelings is to Anabel. There’s also George’s mother (Mona, played by Veena Sood), who is determined to put these two back together in the way that is best for them. She carries a revelation that gets to another aspect of life, and emotional well-being, that we often don’t realize until we’re older- how our emotions impact us may not be as a result of us, but our parents. How we overcome that, and grow into ourselves, is how we truly become the people we’re meant to be.
“With Love and a Major Organ” left me feeling grateful for having seen it. As someone who has often struggled with how best to show my emotions over the years, I felt deeply for Anabel and George as they navigate a world that doesn’t really reward them for who they are, but when they are offered the chance to change, it might make them worse and not better. The ending had me in tears, watching as struggles to figure out whom they are bring these two people together in a way that was unthinkable at the beginning. This is a beautiful testament to the strength it takes to live, to embrace things that hurt us, and to heal when life doesn’t seem to give us what we want. My heart is happy thinking about it, and having it in my memory banks moving forward.
