Plot and Themes (with Spoilers)

(This is the same as what runs along the side, plus a description of the ending and of Sarah)

Seeing and Believing is a "quirky drama" about five friends in their late twenties:  Marissa, Bill, Sarah, Amy and Larry.

As the film opens, Marissa is just leaving a mental hospital (is that what we call them these days?), where she has been staying, following her attempt at suicide.  Her best friend Bill takes her in and tries to help her re-adjust to her new life as best he can, though he does not feel especially confident that he is up to the task.  He, a chef, invites over some friends for a casual dinner, two of whom he does not know very well, and one of these - Larry - turns out to be someone that Marissa played with one summer as a child. 

Marissa and Larry, under the jealous eye of Larry's girlfriend Amy, proceed to spend some time together.  Soon a conflict arises as they each start to remember "the game" they played that one summer.  Larry insists it wasn't real, that they were pretending or imagining things, but Marissa suspects he is mistaken.  The truth becomes undeniable before too long:  as five-year-olds, they really had ESP.  The next question is, what about now? 

Marissa is a writer, who has always been highly intuitive and empathetic, even while no "ESP" abilities have ever been explicitly recognized or labeled as such.  Larry is a frustrated pianist who has dutifully put together a conventional and orderly life, of which the conservative Amy is a chief signifier.  As the film progresses, Marissa responds to her memories and developing abilities with an openness, even as she struggles painfully with the ramifications.  Larry, on the other hand, refuses to believe in his abilities, tries to fight them off, and suffers increasingly disruptive anxiety as the consequence of his denial.

Eventually, each comes to a moment of testing in which they have to choose “yes” or “no” to the  question, Can you live with who you really are?  Marissa, with Bill’s help, says “yes,” and Larry, rejecting Amy’s attempts at help, says “no.”  The film approaches its conclusion with Larry’s failed attempt to kill himself, which puts him into the same hospital that Marissa left at the beginning of the film.  This latter fact is a catalyst for Bill’s own breakthrough (“Why do people keep ending up here?!”), which leads him to come out to himself and to Marissa as gay, saying “yes” to his own true identity, as well.

By this point, the five friends have bonded, and while Marissa began the movie alone in her hospital room, we see Larry surrounded by the others, and it is clear that he will not have to move forward from that moment by himself.

But wait – you said there were five friends – who is this “Sarah” character?  Sarah is Amy’s somewhat brusque, leftist roommate.  She is a foil for each of the other characters at various points, particularly in so far as she pulls no punches and wears her heart on her sleeve: she is authentic, connected, and she has nothing to hide.  Sarah does not have ESP, but she offers an alternative model of seeing, believing, and owning up.

The two governing themes of the film are:

1) The authentic self – both the obstacles that block us from realizing it, and the tools that allow us to bring it forth

2) Loving – what it means and what it looks like, both on a personal level and on a larger, social level (as well as on a theological level, if you're inclined to look through that lens).