The Lion King has long been an inspiration to us all. Except that part where Mufasa brutally kicks the bucket. Evidently, this is also the case for Jennifer Lopez, who opted not only to enlist her daughter with Marc Anthony, Emme Maribel Muñiz, to play a younger version of herself (how very Madonna with Lourdes in the “Celebration” video), but also the very distinct backdrops of Pride Rock as a source for motivating one to climb it. You know, a metaphor for surmounting obstacles as all the elements seem to beat you down so that you cannot (thus the ominous shifting clouds and ceaselessly blowing leaves).
A classic power ballad (someone has to pick up the slack where Céline Dion left off, since she’s too busy rendering babies genderless at the moment), the song is produced by Jesse Shatkin, who co-wrote it with Sia–seemingly very busy writing uber sendups of what a pop song is these days. In keeping with the theme of Second Act, the movie for which it was made for, Lopez speaks of triumphing in the face of failure after failure, disappointment after disappointment. Hence, the presence of her daughter as a representation of “the little girl inside of all of us that’s always fighting.” Which, true, every woman needs in order to sustain even a modicum of determination in this patriarchal world.
To add to the “Circle of Life” opening of The Lion King feel, a bright red-orange sunset looms behind Lopez while dressed in a red pantsuit in the center of a sea of other basics dressed in ordinary black suits. Maybe she’s subtly trying to tell us that when you’re extraordinary, it’s even harder to succeed, as everyone wants you to remain down in the muck with them. It’s far more enjoyable than 1) admitting you’re better or 2) seeing you soar.
This, too, is precisely what happens to Lopez’s character, Maya, in Second Act, as she does all she can to hide the truth about her lowbrow identity from her new employer and newfound daughter. And yet, over time, she is forced to reconcile, as J. Lo describes it in lyric form, “I told myself I had to be a different someone in order to win at a war I had already won/Yeah, I’d given up on the saying ‘I’ll never give up’/But look at me now/Yeah, look at me, I’m limitless.”
This statement, in between flashing back and forth between her “young self” and her present one is both empowering and daunting, for she’s basically saying, “Yes, you can make it at any age, I just can’t tell you if that’s going to be thirteen like Natalie Portman or 106 like Mastanamma.” So yes, in one sense, it is comforting–especially paired with all this overbearing nature imagery–but on the other, it is somewhat discouraging. Especially when J. Lo loosely borrows from the Katy Perry book of lyrics with, “I am a woman who roars/Nobody opened my doors/Yeah, I am a woman saying I want more/So give me what I’m asking for.”
This isn’t exactly true based on the movie plot, for Maya needed her godson, Dilly (Dalton Harrod), to manufacture a resume and Facebook page behind her back to get her in the door. So yes, someone–a man–opened that door. What’s more, as a woman claiming to want more, Maya still bows to her boyfriend Trey’s (Milo Ventimiglia) insistence upon having children despite her overt lack of interest in going down that road again when she already has a daughter from the past. Thus, if we’re to view “Limitless” as an even remotely viable companion piece to the Second Act narrative, it’s best if we don’t actually see the movie and instead just watch this J. Lo-directed video for it below to get our drive and inspiration from The Lion King visuals galore.
On a side note, it’s a shame the movie actually called Limitless didn’t get a song of the same name to go with it. But one supposes Bradley Cooper’s singing abilities were not honed in 2011 as they are now thanks to A Star Is Born.
