Keith

No, I don't know a person named Keith. I'm talking about the 2008 movie starring Jesse McCartney and Elisabeth Harnois. I watched it on what I considered to be late on Thursday night, but was technically early Friday morning; I didn't sleep until three. I really loved the movie. It was somewhat typical I suppose, but it reached me. It made me cry. Let me tell you a little bit about it. 

The movie is basically about the relationship that develops between this girl named Natalie and this guy named Keith. Natalie is your typical popular intelligent girl that you see in books, TV shows, and other movies. Her supposed goal is to make it into Duke on a tennis scholarship, but it's not really her dream. Now, Keith is very strange. He does what he wants and doesn't live by the rules. He's awfully carefree and he loves his yellow truck. Anyway, Natalie and Keith get paired together in chemistry. Their relationship gradually develops from there. Keith and Natalie end up spending a lot of time together, despite the fact that Natalie has a boyfriend named Rafael. BUT, there's a twist in Natalie and Keith's story. Natalie finds out that Keith is on antidepressants and later finds out that he is dying of cancer. Natalie becomes upset because Keith did not tell her. Of course, they make up and Natalie helps Keith come to terms with leaving. Natalie graduates from high school and it is assumed that Keith has passed away. By the end of the movie, Natalie has become very much like Keith and sets out to fulfill Keith's dream of attending a truck festival. 

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is where Keith and Natalie are laying in the back of his yellow truck at the cliff (Keith's spot), which overlooks "The Brick" (the place where the populars hang out). Natalie notices the truck moving and gets out. She frantically screams at Keith to jump to safety, but Keith isn't listening to her. At the last second, he jumps into the front seat and stops the truck. Natalie gets angry and asks him if he was trying to kill himself. The funny part is that the opening scene shows Natalie in the back of Keith's truck. Towards the end of the movie, it continues the opening scene and Natalie does just as Keith did. She waits until the last second to stop the truck. 

There were a lot of other really nice and/or funny scenes throughout the movie as well. Another one of my favorite scenes was probably the "bowling" scene. Keith picks Natalie up at 4 in the morning and they go "bowling." By "bowling," I mean that Keith convinces Natalie to put bowling balls onto people's lawns and/or porches (can't really remember), including their chemistry teacher. They also go to a diner and end up leaving their two remaining bowling balls, Cosmo and Patsy, with a note saying to take care of them. It's a pretty funny scene, but mostly because of the music. 

Time to be serious! I really enjoyed the movie because of how Keith changes Natalie. The more time Natalie spends with Keith, the more she is set free. And I liked that. The other thing I really liked was that Keith didn't tell her about having cancer. I guess it's an important detail, but it's not like he's obligated to tell her. He just wanted to have fun with his remaining time. 


...I bet most of this doesn't make any sense, which is why you should watch the movie! It's on Netflix! Also, it has a really nice soundtrack. Listen to the soundtrack and maybe it will convince you to watch the movie.