The Story of Us (1999)

Directed by Rob Reiner
Written by Jessie Nelson & Alan Zweibel
Starring Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rita Wilson, Rob Reiner, Paul Reiser

My Advice: Matinee.

The "us" of the title is Ben (Willis) and Katie (Pfeiffer), a couple who, after fifteen years of marriage, are just about to throw in the towel.  The only reason they've withstood going ahead with a divorce up until this point is because they don't want their two kids to have a broken home.  Trouble is--they used to be happy, they used to be crazy about each other--and they're either going to figure out how to get back there (or at least near there) or they're going to wind up hurting one another until it really is over.

Love is a many splendored thing, so the song said, but it can also be a real pain in the ass.  We are given a tour of this spectrum from one end to the other by Mr. Reiner, and what a guide he is.  When he's not behind the camera, he's using his own ass as a tool for philosophy.  Yes, you read that last sentence right, keep going.  Coupled with a smart and very funny screenplay by Nelson and Zweibel, you have interesting devices that progress the fifteen years of marriage.  First, the two main characters have little "asides," mini-monologues for the camera in which they explain their side of the plight we're witnessing.  They're very short, very honestly played, and let us see what's going on in their head even while they're throwing a fit in the interim.  Second, at times we jump around in chronology during scattershot montages made up of important "moments" in the lives of this family.  This allows us to experience effectively the width and breadth of the marriage in a very short amount of time, keeping this from being just another story of spousal squabble.  We quickly ascertain that something is in danger of ending here.

Now these neat tricks would have been reduced to mere gimmicks had we not the right actors for the job.  Luckily--we get those too.  Willis manages to be charming and funny without being a David Addison carbon copy.  Pfeiffer, although at times stuck with a shrill and unsympathetic character, manages to steer between the extremes that were a little too heavy.  I must admit that the two might have needed a bit more in the chemistry department, but that wasn't too much of a problem for me since I've known couples in real life who were much worse off than these two.  Paul Reiser also has a nice little scene defending online sex, but the true hilarity belongs to Rita Wilson.  The good news is that not all of her vaunted toilet paper speech was used in the trailer. 

All in all, it's not a good date movie.  This is not a film for people who are seeing each other casually.  It's a film for people in a serious, long-term committed relationship--I think they have the most chance of understanding everything the film has to say.  They will recognize in the film parts of themselves and be amazed.  Worth seeing on the big screen, but as always, we err on the side of your wallet--check out a matinee, but don't miss it.