The Story of Us
The Story of Us is a peculiar film starring Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer as a married couple whose marriage is falling apart. When their two teenage kids go off to summer camp, they decide to have a trial separation. Willis, a writer moves into a hotel, and his wife, a crossword designer stays in their home. During the weeks that follow, we watch as each of them reflects on times past. They were so good in the beginning, yet over time, something went wrong. What went wrong? How did they allow this to happen? How are they going to tell the kids? As an outsider, it's easy to see what went wrong. He never listens to her. She wants everything to be precisely as she expects, just like a crossword grid. He always thinks she's blaming him for their problems, she thinks that talking to another woman is the same as having an affair. And so on, all the usual reasons why couples end up hating each other. They simply have too much resentment stored up over years of not talking their problems through. So tangible is the tension between these two people, that it is clear from the beginning that this marriage is unrecoverable. And that's why I hate the end of this film so much. The filmmakers (or was it the studio) took a reasonably good film and ruined it with a feel-good ending that simply doesn't fit. Welcome to Hollywood.
The Story of Us reminded me a bit of Annie Hall, with it's strange blend of fact and fantasy, and the way the characters' thoughts led us from scene to scene in much the same as our real-life thoughts do. There's even the sequence near the end where we watch a stream of quickly edited snippets juxtaposed in a very effective way. What makes the film peculiar is its documentary-like sequences where Willis and Pfeiffer talk directly to the camera. It just doesn't fit somehow.
One reason to see this film is the acting, which is superb in most places. Pfeiffer's performance is particularly good, and Willis actually cries, which was a bit odd to watch since I'm used to seeing him in a torn vest wielding a couple of machine guns. There are also a couple of funny scenes involving Willis's agent who likes to talk openly about his sex life, and in one scene explains in no uncertain terms why Willis should not write a book about his grandma.
All in all, I'd say The Story of Us is certainly worth seeing, but don't expect too much in the way of credibility towards the end.