What would we do without second chances? I dread the answer, because how could we be expected to get everything right the first time around? The truth is we can't, which is why I love to see characters in movies be given the second chances they need.

Two recent films, Garden State (out on DVD at the end of December) and Before Sunset (on DVD November 8), both tell the stories of characters who are given second chances. We laugh, we cry, and we cheer as we see those characters on screen finally clutch on to what we all thought was out of their reach. As Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, has passed recently, these movies seemed to hit quite close to home for me.

We all do a good deal of repenting on Yom Kippur, as we are given a second chance to right the wrongs in our lives. Will that second chance be all we need to tie up our loose ends and mistakes? Often, we forget about the work we have to do after being given that second chance. Where is our "complete" second chance, and is there even such a thing?

Before Sunset, the sequel to 1995's Before Sunrise is about a couple, Jesse and Celine, who met and shared a night together in the first film, and who meet again several years later, and therefore are confronted with the decision of whether or not they truly belong together. Both have gone their separate ways over the years, and Jesse is married with a son. The second film, Garden State, is about a man named Andrew who returns to his hometown after being away for a good deal of time. While he's there, he reconciles with his father who he hasn't spoken to seriously in years, reconnects with an old friend, and falls in love.

At first glance, both these films seem like they end on a perfect note. Although Jesse and Celine realize they really are in love, and although Andrew has fallen in love and reconnected with his family ad friends, all is not perfect. Now that Jesse has reconnected with who he truly realizes is the love of his life, what will he do about his wife and child? And true Andrew has reconnected with his father and childhood friend, but he still missed many crucial years in between when he left town, and returned. His relationship with his father and friend is better than it was, but it still has a long way to go. The characters in both these films have been given second chances, but new problems seem to arise from them.

Perhaps no second chance has a completely happy ending. No matter what, one tied up loose end leaves another undone. The idea of "the second chance" seems to be a launching point for us to confront our most serious problems, requiring and emphasizing therefore, much work on our part. Jesse and Celine's encounter allows Jesse to realize that he has to rethink his life and the choices he's made. He had been thinking constantly about Celine in the years between their first and second encounter, even on his wedding day. This second meeting will force him to work to find a common ground between his family, and the woman he loves. Andrew hadn't talked to his father in years, and now that he has, he is given the forum with which to rebuild that relationship. In both these films, the second chances don't as much act as atonement for the characters, but as a wake-up call to address the serious issues in their lives.

So perhaps today is the time for us to stop and think about the issues in our lives that need to be addressed, and then to go out and address them. By sitting in Synagogue, we atone for our sins to God, but still have a lot of work to do in cleaning up the left over debris in our actual lives. Yom Kippur acts as our launching pad into the rest of the year, and provides the forum for us to deal with our issues and fix our mistakes, but much of the work has to be done today, AFTER the holiday has passed. And it is not a second chance in and of itself. So true, there will never be a complete second chance that will automatically make everything neat and clean, and perhaps, that's the way it should be.