GIRLS TRIP
THE MOVIE WOMEN DIDN'T KNOW WE NEEDED
It’s no surprise that Girls Trip will have you holding your stomach from beginning to end. The chemistry between these four women is authentically amazing. I saw a little of myself in every character as well as a clear representation for each one of my closest friends. What caught me by surprise was how cohesive everyone in the movie theatre was. We all laughed at the same parts, tears fell from our eyes at the same time and all jaws dropped whenever Kofi Siriboe came on the screen. It was like we were all one big family.
For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, Tiffany Haddish plays everyone’s “hilariously crazy friend”, Queen Latifah is the brilliant mind who’s in a tough spot, Regina Hall plays the woman who is perfect to the world, but doesn’t have it all together behind closed doors and Jada is the “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”/Mother of the group. They are the type of friends everyone needs, the kind who don’t speak to each other everyday, but when they do everything picks up where it was last left off. Meeting in college and growing over the years these characters couldn’t help but remind me of my “Flossy Posse”. Everything my crew and I have been through, from drunk nights at school, to cramming for tests in the library, to being the successful young women we are today. Witnessing my friends blossom into who they are has been an amazing experience I wouldn’t trade for the world and I truly believe everyone who sees this movie will tell you the same thing.
I’ve been broke like Latifah’s character (Sasha) I’ve struggled with my creativity, feeling forced to pursue one path when I was passionate about another. I’ve also been Jada (Lisa), stuck in the same routine, bored and alone just going through the motions. My romantic life has suffered like Regina (Ryan) and I’ve had my hoe phase like Tiffany (Dina). These roles are more than fictional characters, they are you and I, her and she, they are we. As women we have the toughest hardships psychologically. Being judged by what we wear, what we don’t wear, how we style our hair, the way we talk to the way we walk. From our posture to our poise we are taught to be dainty but are constantly ridiculed for being fragile. In the words of Ryan Pierce, “you are strong, you are powerful, you are beautiful.” Which is what she tells herself throughout the movie whenever she feels the world closing in on her.
Ryan is suffering emotionally, mentally and physically from self sabotage by choosing to stay in her one sided marriage. Her husband is cheating and the stress from it all has caused her to not be able to become fertile. When her friends find out about Stewart’s infidelity they’re surprised (because they’re America’s “it” couple) not sure how to tell Ryan, Dina lashes it out, but they’re even more surprised when Ryan tells them she knew all along. Hearing her validate her husband’s actions throughout the movie hurt me because I’ve been that girl, making excuses for a man, feeling like this is how it’s supposed to be. Seeing the disappointment on her friends’ faces felt as if I was looking into the eyes of mine. Towards the end of the movie we find out why this friendship has been put on hold. They haven’t seen each other in five years because Ryan was so dissatisfied with her life. She couldn’t bare being around her friends because of the embarrassment. She knows they know her more than she knows herself and she wasn’t ready to hear the truth. How many of us have been Ryan? I’ve been there a time or two, avoiding certain phone calls because I wasn’t ready to admit to the reoccurring wrongs I was allowing in my life.
How many of us have stayed in dead end relationships because that person was all we knew? Whether we were afraid of change, didn’t want to be alone or just didn’t want to accept the truth for what it was? How many of us have bought something from the store and worn it with the tags still attached with every intention to take it back? How many of us have locked eyes with a guy and got weak in the knees? How many of us have had to get our groove back? How many of us have forgotten who we were? These are situations that resonate with all of us. Regardless if you’ve been through these notions or not, you have a friend who has. I didn’t think this movie was going to be as raw and real as it was. By raw, I don’t mean edgy. I mean honest and selfless. I was expecting nothing more than a regular comedy and I got so much more. I saw so much of me and my friends watching these beautiful women on the screen. The silly things we do at 23 is the same kind of fun these women were having in their 40’s. It deserves every dollar it gets. So far all $65,085,525 worth.
I thought vacations with my friends were wild now, I can’t wait until we’re in our prime like these ladies.