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"The
Same Old 'Story'"
by Scott Mantz
"The Story of Us"
Michelle Pfeiffer,
Bruce Willis
Directed by Rob Reiner
Forget about
rocket science and brain surgery. Without a doubt, the toughest
profession in the 90's is marriage. Between car payments, mortgage
payments, working all day, making dinner, and putting the kids to
bed, there is enormous pressure on families to make it work. We
forget that marriage, as beautiful as it is with the right person,
is a full time job in itself. Yes, passion is a wonderful thing,
but there has to be a strong friendship in place to get you through
the tough times. Before too long, spouses can drift so far apart
that they forget what they saw in each other in the first place.
These are some of the issues raised in the touching, heartwarming,
and emotional "The Story of Us". Bring your hankies along with you
for this one.
Ben (Bruce Willis)
and Katie (Michelle Pfeiffer) are about to celebrate their 15th
wedding anniversary, but it's clear that the honeymoon has been
over for a very long time. They get on each other's nerves and just
can't seem to make it work anymore. While their kids spend the summer
at overnight camp, they endeavor a trail separation. We flash back
to the best of times and the worst of times while we witness the
angst of their separation. They try to figure out what went wrong
and evaluate whether or not to salvage what's left of their deteriorating
relationship. Do they stay together? See the movie and find out.
Bruce Willis
is having a good year at the box office, and "Story" is another
example of how fine he can be when he throws himself into a role.
There's no question that Willis's performance is inspired by real
life circumstances, since the disintegration of his marriage to
longtime (in Hollywood anyway) wife Demi Moore. Even in Hollywood,
divorce is very painful. When he and Pfeiffer argue about every
nook and cranny of their marriage, Willis let's it all hang out
with the venting redemption of a man who clearly has something to
say. You can't help but feel his pain as he weighs the odds of keeping
it together or calling it a day.
Nobody plays
hysterical quite like Michelle Pfeiffer. In "The Deep End of the
Ocean", her desperate obsession to find her son and the strain it
put on her marriage was the central focus of that film. "In "Story",
we see more of the same, but on a more realistic scale. In the film's
climactic scene, Pfeiffer delivers a powerfully poignant and moving
speech when she realizes what's at stake and learns that the bad
days actually enhance the good ones.
"Story" is clearly
a return to form for director Rob Reiner. After the disappointing
"Ghosts of Mississippi", he gets back to the formula that made "When
Harry Met Sally..." such a huge success. In each film, we see both
points of view in the form of flashbacks up to the present day,
and neither party is ever really at fault. Also, both sexes spend
their time venting to their quirky, dysfunctional friends, here
played by Rita Wilson, Rob Reiner, and Paul Reiser.
Reiner successfully
blends bittersweet humor with real drama in a film that will appeal
to both sexes regardless of their marital status. Things wrap themselves
up nicely, but that's OK. Hollywood is known for shoving happy endings
down our throats, but sometimes happy endings really do happen.
It's a testimony to their relationship that they finally take a
step back and take stock of their inventory. With the divorce rate
at an all time high, it's nice to see a couple take the time to
look at the forest through the trees and appreciate the flowers
that sprang from the seeds they planted.
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