← Back to Reviews
in
The Story of Us
Despite a murky screenplay, the 1999 comedy-drama The Story of Us is still imminently watchable thanks to the slick yet sensitive direction of Rob Reiner and the exuberant performances from Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer in the lead roles.
Willis and Pfeiffer play Ben and Kate, who have been married for 15 years but the marriage is on life support as the film opens, despite the fact that Ben and Kate are doing whatever they can to keep their children Josh and Erin blissfully unaware of their strained marriage while doing what they can to repair whatever went wrong. The film centers around Ben and Kate dropping Josh and Erin off at summer camp for a month and in that month, try to figure out the best way to break it to the kids what's really going on.
This cinematic deconstruction of a marriage crafted by screenwriters Alan Zweibel (who also makes a cameo in the film) and Jessie Nelson is told out of sequence and we're never quite sure where each scene took place in the story of this marriage. We are initially assisted by mockumentary interviews with the lead characters and some narration which do lead us to a scene closest to the beginning of their marriage, where we are told that Katie has just been hired to work where Ben does, but this is the only scene where we know exactly where in the relationship took place.
I kept looking for a scene that would explain precisely what went wrong in this marriage but this reveal never happens and I think I realized why. The underlying them of this story seems to be that the end of a marriage is not always because of a specific event...sometimes marriages quiet and methodically die for no specific reason, life priorities alter and shift and the participants in a marriage just stop seeing each other the way they did at the beginning. I loved that their number one priority was telling the children properly and the scenes documenting the couple's three attempts at counseling.
Willis and Pfeiffer create a vivid and explosive chemistry onscreen that never feels forced or affected, with standout work from Willis. The director and Rita Wilson also score as their best friends as does Tim Matheson as the family dentist who tries to initiate a relationship with Kate once he learns of her separation. Paul Reiser also appears unbilled as Ben's boss, but it's Reiner, Willis, and Pfeiffer that give this one sizzle.
Despite a murky screenplay, the 1999 comedy-drama The Story of Us is still imminently watchable thanks to the slick yet sensitive direction of Rob Reiner and the exuberant performances from Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer in the lead roles.
Willis and Pfeiffer play Ben and Kate, who have been married for 15 years but the marriage is on life support as the film opens, despite the fact that Ben and Kate are doing whatever they can to keep their children Josh and Erin blissfully unaware of their strained marriage while doing what they can to repair whatever went wrong. The film centers around Ben and Kate dropping Josh and Erin off at summer camp for a month and in that month, try to figure out the best way to break it to the kids what's really going on.
This cinematic deconstruction of a marriage crafted by screenwriters Alan Zweibel (who also makes a cameo in the film) and Jessie Nelson is told out of sequence and we're never quite sure where each scene took place in the story of this marriage. We are initially assisted by mockumentary interviews with the lead characters and some narration which do lead us to a scene closest to the beginning of their marriage, where we are told that Katie has just been hired to work where Ben does, but this is the only scene where we know exactly where in the relationship took place.
I kept looking for a scene that would explain precisely what went wrong in this marriage but this reveal never happens and I think I realized why. The underlying them of this story seems to be that the end of a marriage is not always because of a specific event...sometimes marriages quiet and methodically die for no specific reason, life priorities alter and shift and the participants in a marriage just stop seeing each other the way they did at the beginning. I loved that their number one priority was telling the children properly and the scenes documenting the couple's three attempts at counseling.
Willis and Pfeiffer create a vivid and explosive chemistry onscreen that never feels forced or affected, with standout work from Willis. The director and Rita Wilson also score as their best friends as does Tim Matheson as the family dentist who tries to initiate a relationship with Kate once he learns of her separation. Paul Reiser also appears unbilled as Ben's boss, but it's Reiner, Willis, and Pfeiffer that give this one sizzle.