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Newman
Member
09-25-2004
| Monday, November 14, 2005 - 8:59 pm
I liked this movie a lot. Some members of my little movie group didn't and some didn't like it a lot. It's about divorce, an intellectual writing couple, their two boys, in Brooklyn. It made me think of my divorce and it's affect on the kids. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney were very good as were the teenagers. I give it an A-.
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Jen
Member
07-27-2003
| Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - 10:08 am
I didn't like this movie at all. Jeff Daniels' character was horrid, and Laura Linney annoys me. The roles she plays are always so self-serving. I know that families are messed up, but there was no redeaming quality to me. I would not recommend it to anyone.
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Ketchuplover
Member
08-30-2000
| Tuesday, November 15, 2005 - 4:27 pm
Can anyone explain the title?
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Newman
Member
09-25-2004
| Friday, November 18, 2005 - 11:59 am
At the very end of the movie, the older teenage boy sees a shrink, and the shrink asks him if he has any warm memories of childhood (from his dysfunctional family). He remembers his Mother fondly. She took him to the Museum where she took him to the Squid and the Whale display. Think of the great movie Citizen Cane, where the narrator mumbles at the end, Rosebud, which turned out to be the name of his sled. I do hear what you're saying, Jen. My best friend did not like this movie at all. But he has never been married, in a bad marriage, like me, and then divorced, with children. It gave me a lot to ponder. I agree that Jeff Daniels wasn't all that likeable but he portrayed that quality well. I wonder if I was that way? Nah...it was all my wife's fault <only partly joking>. I think both parents did love their children. Didn't that come thru? They just put their careers (his was fading and hers was on a meteoric rise) ahead of their kids. They put their own individual (maybe sexual satisfaction) ahead of the happiness of the family union.
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Newman
Member
09-25-2004
| Friday, November 18, 2005 - 12:06 pm
What do you do when the marriage falters and you have kids? Do you try to stay together "for the kids?" Or do you separate and move on? It seemed they both had affairs. It's hard to patch things up after an affair. Betrayal hurts. They no longer loved each other. They couldn't even fake it. And they had enuf money to separate (didn't stay together because of money). Although the scene when Jeff Daniels sent his kid to the store for the kid's headache, buy some tylenol, and he could hardly scrape together $3. That's reality...the poverty issue I mean.
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Jedisan
Member
01-11-2002
| Friday, November 18, 2005 - 6:09 pm
"I didn't like this movie at all. Jeff Daniels' character was horrid, and Laura Linney annoys me. The roles she plays are always so self-serving. " Jen, I cannot comment on the characters of this film, since I have not seen it, (but plan to on DVD); and I cannot presume to know all of the movies that you have seen that Laura has been in. That said, I have been a Laura Linney fan since 1993, when I saw in her Armistead Maupins "Tales of the City" - her role was hardly self serving, and it may give you a wider perspective on her body of work. It is a miniseries however, with adult themes, and you would need more than five hours, when you could just watch... "You can count on me" from the early 2000's. She plays (yummy) Mark Ruffalo's sister, who agrees to take him in for a while. Despite his flaws and treatment of her; which she knew was to be expected, due to his past behavior. Her main concern other than her kid, is her brothers second chance. Matthew Broderick is also great in this movie, as her married lover (she has flaws of her own). I admit it has been a long time since I saw this movie, so, if you do watch it, and find that she is indeed self serving yet again... Please dont' flame me! \
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Newman
Member
09-25-2004
| Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 6:45 am
Self serving. An interesting phrase, character flaw, indictment. Both parents definitely seemed self serving. I think they portrayed that well. I think it may be a common concern for modern parents, modern people. My parents sacrificed everything for us kids (even their happiness). I'm not sure I can say the same for me. Do you stay together in an unhappy marriage "just for the kids?" These kids would have wanted for their individual self serving lives.
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