Modern Love – Beyond Years

Is age nothing but a number, if there’s a huge gap in a relationship? Is it the time that each has been alive or the time that’s spent together that matters?

While Tim McEown, a columnist at the New York Times, was having sex with his fiancée, Sarah, he had a heart attack. He was 48 years old and she was 26 years old, at the time, but Sarah had no idea of his age, because she didn’t think it really mattered.

With M. C. Escher like rotation of shapes, stairs and angles, both Tim and Sarah realize they are both still on different circumstantial platforms, no matter how close they are. It’s a reality that both of them had to acknowledge as there are some fundamental differences that will hold true for the rest of their lives together.

Sarah had come from a background with parents that had a big age gap and her mother offered a few words of wisdom for Sarah not to follow in the same footsteps. While foreshadowing imagery of a tree growing into human heart and its coronary arteries start to dismantle another tree (family tree), Sarah doesn’t accept her mother’s reality…yet. As long as Tim is still Sarah’s best friend in 20 years, that’s all she cares about.

As the E.M.T.s work on Tim, he looks over to Sarah and sees her pack an overnight bag with his sweater, some clean clothes and running shoes, convinced that he was coming back. It’s a heartening moment for Tim – even though his life didn’t have significance for himself, it had significance for her. Can Tim survive this ordeal? Can the relationship last?