The release of Ariana Grande’s deluxe album “eternal sunshine deluxe: brighter days ahead” was accompanied by a short film. The film showcases several songs added to the album and other hits from the original version. Through the film, Grande encapsulates the meaning of the album with its primary theme.
This film is a continuation of her last music video “we can’t be friends (wait for your love).” This music video shows Grande playing the role of a woman named Peaches accepting the procedure by the fictional company, Brighter Days Ahead Incorporated. In this video, the procedure is to completely remove someone from your memories. She struggles to accept this during the video but by the end, they take the items featured in these memories and incinerate them, symbolizing the destruction and removal of memories for the better of yourself. The video describes how difficult it can be to move on from someone after being together and having significant moments together.
The film then continues with the same incineration scene. After, a hologram explains the procedure done by the company and what it can do for someone. The main initiative of the company is to erase memories that may be bringing you down to provide you with brighter days in the future. The process symbolizes that by moving on from an event or someone your life can lead to a brighter future.
Once this introduction is concluded, we return to the same waiting room from the music video where there is an older version of Peaches signing another waver. Soon, a nurse calls a muffled name and once she adjusts her hearing aid, she realizes it is her turn. The nurse then takes her wheelchair and pushes her into the hallway. Then, they enter a metal door where the nurse informs her she has four memories to view.
The machine to project the memories is quickly loaded, creating four marbles and placing a stopper before they can roll and be destroyed. Peaches chooses the first memory to be displayed, where a snippet of “intro (end of the world)” begins to play where the memory being projected displays a young Grande and her family including her mom, dad, and her grandmother, Nona. As one grows older, looking in the past is a truly beautiful experience, and by displaying Grande’s childhood, it only helps to encapsulate how important life is.
After the first memory concludes, it is immediately destroyed. Then, Peaches selects the second memory to view. The projection shows a young Grande on an alien-like platform with a microphone where she begins to sing “eternal sunshine.” Once the song is concluded, a mournful trumpet begins to play and Grande begins the next song “dandelion.” During the song, we get a view on the screens surrounding the projection of videos from Grande’s fans at her concerts. The memory describes how her fans and concerts have been some of the most influential and important parts of her life. Currently, Grande does not plan to return on tour so reminiscing on her tours and fans only serves to remind her of how happy they make her.
During the third memory, we once again see young Peaches wake up in a wrecked, water-filled house and rise out of bed. Peaches walks through the water in the home where she finds a necklace, but as she goes towards it, she sees other destroyed items from her removed memories. While this is happening, the song, “twilight zone,” starts to play. Through the song, she marvels over her divorce with Dalton Gomez. She questions how she misunderstood her ex so much and offers a final true message. Once she walks outside of the house, “supernatural” begins to play and Peaches walks over to a beam of light. This light is coming from an alien ship, where she stands in the light and is beamed up. In summary, Grande reveals how she misunderstood her ex-husband and how attracted she was to him before their divorce. By doing this, the audience is able to realize how significant her ex-husband was to her, the cause of their breakup still unknown.
Finally, the last memory begins to play. Ee see a man in a pub, reminiscing on memories just like Peaches. He shows the audience a pocket watch with a young girl in it. As he reminisces, we see a man holding the same necklace Peaches had just put on in the last memory. “Hampstead” begins to play as the camera follows the man. When he arrives home, we see on the window that he is the founder of Brighter Days Ahead Inc. The audience sees that in a newspaper, his daughter was torn apart by something unknown. After he begins to put all the pieces together, he starts to “repair” Peaches in hopes to bring her back. He begins to prepare the instrumentals of “Hampstead” to use the electricity to bring Peaches back after failure. Once this occurs, the color of the film is restored, and she is seen singing with the same man who gave her the necklace on the piano in the pub. In this final memory, Grande uses “Hampstead” to mourn her breakup and find new love. The film shows that she was destroyed from the breakup, but once she was able to find love again she was brought back to life. Breakups can be difficult especially ones where you believed that they were the one for you. When we see Peaches, it shows that throughout her life there have been several struggles, but now, she can live freely.
From the film, Grande was truly able to project the meaning of her album not only through lyrics but with a beautiful visual. Now that she has finally moved on from her previous husband, Dalton Gomez, Grande has been brought to peace just like Peaches.
