'Modern Love' Episode 3 is a musical revelation in coming to terms with your true self
Major spoilers ahead for Episode 3 'Take Me as I Am, Whoever I Am' of Amazon Prime Video's 'Modern Love'
There is no hiding that Anne Hathaway's Lexi is suffering from bipolar disorder. It is one of the first things Lexi tells us as she is filling out the 'about me' section of a dating website.
Lexi's day begins on a high. She wakes up in high spirits and with a peculiar craving for peaches. She goes to the supermarket dressed in her brightest to pick up some peaches. Her she meets Gary Carr's Jeff - tall, dark and handsome. Their connection is instant. And just as spontaneously as they had met, they go for coffee. And Lexi bags a dinner date later that week.
But it is not meant to be for the moment Lexi gets back home, she gets under the covers of her bed and stays there. She misses work, calls and the peaches she got begin to go bad at the counter where she left them - almost indicative of her state.
When she does meet Jeff, their date doesn't go as he had anticipated and they depart on the promise that Lexi will get in touch with him when she is better.
And she does feel better. She wakes up another day with liveliness and vitality - everything is bright and better. She fixes a date with Jeff and is set to cook dinner. But later that evening, as she is getting ready for the date, it comes back - the darkness, the feeling of emptiness and meaninglessness - rendering her rooted to her bathroom floor. Jeff keeps ringing the bell but Lexi can't get herself to even get up and retires to the floor in a fetal position.
She loses her job because she doesn't show up at work. On the day that she is fired, her colleague Slyvia (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) asks her for coffee, where for the very first time, Lexi tells someone else that she is bipolar. Putting her reality out there somehow made the burden completely vanish. Lexi had kept her condition a secret all these years, endured the struggles of bipolar all alone and now that it was out there, she no longer had any inhibitions of bearing with who she is any longer.
'Take Me as I Am, Whoever I Am' is a story of coming to terms with oneself. Through her performance as Lexi, Hathaway plays out the difficulties of living with bipolar disorder. Her moods and mental well-being is concisely orchestrated, choreographed in the background like a broadway musical. On her bright days, it is uplifting and elevating. On others, it is desolate.
Based on the article by Terri Cheney and directed by John Carney, 'Take Me as I Am, Whoever I Am' is a wholesome story of one's reality told by herself in a hopeful manner.
"So here I am. That's about it. This is me. I know that's a lot to take in. But if this doesn't scare you off, then feel free to leave me a message," Lexi ends her bio.
All episodes of 'Modern Love' are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
