Tuesday night, my wife and I saw Anora in theatres. As a modern Cinderella, Anora is an NYC sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch after the son pays for her professional services. It’s all going to be better now, she thinks. Money. Status. Security. Even… love. To what she’s sought, she owns it all. Then, it’s stripped away. I’ll say no more other than to say it’s worth the $17 cost of admission.
Though she fails to get what she wants by the story’s close, she comes to own something infinitely more valuable: an understanding of who she is.
How? Because she stayed true to her own lights. She is the only character who refuses to compromise across the story. And in the end, she knows whose foot the shoe fits.
In the game of our own life, we can’t play to win, nor can we avoid defeat; we can only play the game to discover who we are. And that much, if we surrender the outcome, will always be guaranteed.
To livin’ a life we love,
Ryan Fightmaster, MD
