The ending of Look Both Ways is sweet and works for Natalie’s story. There is so much growth within the five years that she left that graduation house party. After premiering each animated short film to SXSW, she stumbles upon that house with Jake and Gabe.
The split screen comes into play, and both versions of Natalie walking into the bathroom give her two options in life. Having Natalie stare at the mirror and say she is okay after everything she has gone through is a powerful way to end the movie. It’s so heartwarming because it was fate that brought her to that house at that moment just to give her a little life check-in.
Sometimes, we don’t realize how important those callbacks are, but it’s important to take them and sit with them. Even though she is now leading two different lives that equally make her happy, she still achieved her dreams in some way. The duality of her life is something everyone thinks about for themselves, and sometimes, many of us overthink what could be.
Did she think she would be living in Los Angeles with her best friend and end up dating another animator? No. Did she think she would be designing a children’s book because of her newborn daughter and the nickname she and her partner used to call her? No. But her dreams still came true. The dynamics kept changing throughout the movie, and it’s important to note that that is how fast life changes and how unpredictable it is.
There is no way of knowing if you’re making the right choices and that’s why it’s better to keep rolling with the punches. Natalie believed in destiny; she believed that fate would push her to the next moment in her life, and she ended up getting everything that she wanted.
This movie is just so refreshing and heartwarming because it just forces us to sit with our decisions and think of them in such a positive manner. Natalie struggled with so much in both realities and she overcame it all because she was able to make her own decisions and push through.
