Six Must-See Movies For Late Bloomers...

By Debra Eve

After all the glitz and snark of last year’s Oscar ceremonies, one film stayed with me — Searching for Sugar Man, “the incredible true story of Rodriguez, the greatest ’70s rock icon who never was.”

I love that it’s not a rags to riches story. It’s the perfect late bloomer’s tale, a testament to the power of art, a rebuff to our society’s definition of success.

Few movies feature late bloomers or late achievers, but those that do win big. It shows how much we crave these stories.

Here are my favorite late-bloomer films of the past ten years, starting withSugar Man and working back:

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)

Winner: 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary. In the late ’60s, two famous MUSIC PRODUCERS discovered Rodriguez, a soulful singer of protest rock, at a Detroit bar. They had no doubt he would be the greatest recording artist of his generation.

But the albums bombed. Rodriguez returned to poverty and manual labor. Some said he committed suicide on stage. Somehow a bootleg recording got into South Africa and he gave voice to the anti-apartheid movement.

The documentary tells how two South African fans set out to learn what happened to their hero. What they discovered will challenge your notions of failure and success.

Hugo (2011)

Winner: 2012 AFI Movie of the Year. Don’t write off Hugo as a mere children’s movie. It’s about brilliant real-life French filmmaker Georges Melies, whose silent movies echoed fevered, fantastical dreams.

Melies experienced a series of financial setbacks, then World War I broke out. He watched the French army melt down his films for their celluloid, which they used for boot heels.

After the war, Pathé exercised a hostile takeover of Melies’ studio. He became a recluse and reluctant toymaker. That’s where fictional orphan Hugo Cabret steps in. This film’s ending will convince you to never let early dreams die.

Secretariat (2010)

As long as she could remember, Penny Chenery loved horses, something she inherited from her father, a thoroughbred breeder. But she did as expected for a woman born in 1922 — marry her college sweetheart, raise four children, run a home.

When her father became ill, Penny defied those expectations and took over Meadow Stable, which had begun to falter without a DIRECTOR. She was 46, and no one believed in her.

But she believed in herself and her horses, even after her father died and FAMILY urged her to sell out. She oversaw the breeding of a gorgeous red pony named Secretariat, now considered one of the greatest thoroughbreds of all time.

Penny, who’s still going strong, does a cameo as a spectator at the Belmont Stakes — a witness to her own stubborn success.

The King’s Speech (2010)

Winner: 2011 Academy Award for Best Motion Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The King’s Speech swept the 2011 award season. Despite its royal subject, we can relate to the stuttering man who, at age 41, triumphed over that obstacle and stepped into his destiny.

And screenwriter David Seidler, at age 74, accepted the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with the quip, “My father always said to me I’d be a late bloomer.” Find out why here.

Julie and Julia (2009)

Nominated: Meryl Streep, 2010 Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. How can you not love Julia Child? She was over 6′ of bonhomie, in love with food and with life. And she found it all at age 36 with her first meal in France. (I write more about her here.)

The movie follows Julia’s years in early-1950s Paris, based on her memoir. Meryl Streep plays her with affection and exuberance. Julie and Julia will fill you with passion for your own odyssey (and make you want to eat sinfully rich meals).

American Splendor (2003)

Winner: 2004 AFI Movie of the Year. Harvey Pekar is a graphic novel hero and a real person. He worked as a file clerk for Cleveland’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital most of his life.

But Harvey filled his personal life with a passion for jazz and underground comics, which his friend Robert Crumb (creator of Fritz the CAT) shared. He loved the idea of creating an “everyman” autobiographical comic book.

At age 37, after ten years thinking about it, Harvey wrote the first American Splendor INSTALLMENT, which Crumb illustrated. The film adaptation features Paul Giamatti as Harvey. It’s hilarious and poignant, better than Woody Allen.

Harvey died in 2010. His New York Times obit noted that he

…toiled for nearly 40 years as a file clerk in a VETERANS ADMINISTRATION hospital, applied the brutally frank autobiographical style of Henry Miller to the comic-book format, creating a distinctive series of dispatches from an all-too-ordinary life.

But he made his life his art.

From a housewife to a file clerk to a reluctant king, with a few unique paths in between, these movies feature late bloomers who defied expectations, overcame obstacles, and found passion.

http://www.laterbloomer.com/late-bloomer-movies