Unicorn Store — a movie about following your dreams
“The most grown-up thing you can do is fail at the things you really care about.”
When I watched this movie, I felt an instant connection with Kit Larson played by Brie Larson. It’s not because of her obsession with Care Bears, unicorns and glitter. It was her ability to never stop following her dreams even when everyone told her that she shouldn’t do it. It made me think about all the projects that I have done and failed or didn’t get the marks that I wanted to achieve.
After getting expelled from an art school Kit decides to move into her parent’s basement. To show her parents that she can be a mature adult, she decides to get a job at a temp agency. She meets The Salesman played by Samuel L. Jackson invites her to “The Store” and gives her a set of tasks and if she completes them, Kit will receive a unicorn if she’s on good behaviour. These tasks include building a house for the unicorn to live. There, she meets Virgil and asks him to help her build the house without telling him who — or what in this case, she is building it for. They start spending a lot of their time together and become the best of friends.
While working at her new job, she is given the opportunity to pitch an idea to promote a vacuum cleaner. She is eager to do it, but her coworker warns her that there are two other salespeople who are much more experienced. Regardless of what tell her, she begins to draw a few sketches. Kit understood that if she had to succeed this presentation she would have to do something completely different from her usual artistic designs.
Meanwhile, The Salesman gives her another task, she must show love to other people. Immediately, she decides to build a better relationship with her parents. During the weekend, Kit and her parent’s wilderness trip to strength their dysfunctional relationship. The trip doesn’t go out as she had planned, and Kit and her parents argue. When The Salesman calls her the next day and asks her if she had shown love to her parents, she lies.
All through this movie, it was clear to me that Kit was trying to fit into a world that she didn’t belong to. She was not the kind of person to have a job or pursue a career because your parents are pressuring you to do so. She was something who was special and didn’t have to hide it because other people were uncomfortable around her.
“Stop hiding who you are, Kit.”
In order for Kit to receive her unicorn, she had one final task to finish. She had to prove to The Salesman that she was financially dependent on her own. So after talking to her father, she realised the only way to pitch the marketing plan for the vacuum cleaner was to be herself. She decorates the vacuum cleaner with glitter and all sorts of colourful decorations and wore a colourful costume for the presentation. It was the most unusual and flashy presentation! Kit had absolutely no shame when she started to throw little pieces of paper. She also starts dancing in the middle of the presentation. Realistically, this would get you fired, but Kit finishes the presentation with a bright smile on her face even when her colleagues are looking very confused and unhappy.
They reject her pitch and tells her that it was very childish. They prefer the other idea, pictures of over-sexualised women vacuuming. Kit is very disappointed. After failing to art school, she is once again rejected. This was when she says the most amazing line in the movie:
“The most grown-up thing you can do is fail at the things that you really care about.”
That was it for me. That line was exactly what I needed five years ago. I understood what she meant by that and I knew how that felt too. When you dedicate yourself to a project that you love so much, and people tell you that it won’t work or how are you going to get it done. It’s fine to fail. It’s fine to make mistakes because that is how you learn.
I didn’t learn this before when I was doing my projects. I failed 17 times. I cried. I didn’t know what else to do. So the best solution to that problem was to quit. I admitted defeat. But on my 18th try, I was able to persevere and I finished it!
I had to keep reminding myself that it’s fine to fail. Because when you’re so committed to your work you are bound to make so many mistakes along the way. It’s your own responsibility to admit it.
Unicorn Store isn’t a perfect movie, but it’s a movie that shows us to embrace who we are. We do not have to change ourselves else. It’s okay to be a kid. It’s ok if you’re confused with what you want to do with your life. But failing shouldn’t mean that you must give up and never try again. It means that you should work even harder and accept that there are so many challenges in life. The most important thing is to admit that you can always fail when you care about something so much. And it’s fine. It’s totally fine.
Brie Larson’s directorial debut streaming on Netflix now.
