Back To Life, Back To Reality

Watched it today, and it was better than I hoped. There were only 6 people in the cinema, I found myself really enjoying it and we laughed like mad at certain parts. The thing that stole the show for me was how REAL Dan’s family were. Another thing I was impressed with was the shockingly real portrayal of the guyness of guys! Can totally imagine our guy friends behaving like Dan and his bro’s. Overall I liked the movie, but I had some issues with it.

Spoilers ahead.
Plot: Dan’s a widower with three daughters. They go on an annual trip to his parents place. Next morning he goes out to buy a paper and bumps into an intriguing woman- they talk for hours – she gets a call and has to leave, they exchange numbers.
Dan gets home and lo-and-behold, the intriguing woman, Marie, is none other than his brother’s new girlfriend. They spend the next few days trying to keep away from each other but eventually it’s too much and she leaves, breaking up with Dan’s brother, Mitch. Few hours later, she calls Dan and they meet at a bowling alley, bowl, talk and end up kissing, just as his whole family walks in. Mitch punches him, Marie runs off and the whole extended family are standing shocked. However, in the end, he goes to find her and they get together and presumably live happily ever after in marital bliss.

I dunno. I left the cinema thinking about the ending. Near the end, there’s a scene where Dan apologizes to his daughters and promises to focus on them and not other women. I thought that was it, he made the ‘adult’ and ‘correct’ decision. After all, he had only met Marie for 3days and was claiming to be in love with her. Not that I don’t believe it’s possible (though super highly unlikely), it’s just that she was his own BROTHER’s girlfriend for goodness sake.

I conveyed my thoughts to my friend who watched it with me and she said, “Well, its love. Who’s to say you can stop it. People do things like this for love. It’s a grey area.” My response, “Huh?!? But it’s so wrong! What if they meet someone else down the line and say, ‘oh its love,’ then they just break up is it?” I don’t know if I’m being too severe but, she should just have shut up, stuck with Mitch and moved on or broken up and gone far away.

I don’t think they should be so easily excused.

To make things more complicated, there’s a scene where Mitch asks Dan about the girl he’s interested in, and Dan says she’s got a boyfriend. Mitch asks, “Does she have a ring on her finger?” and once getting a negative answer, proceeds to tell Dan it’s alright to go after her.

Argh! How and why do guys say that! Many a time I’ve been present with my guy friends and they say as long as she’s not married, alls fair play. I wonder if they’re honestly serious or not. Bullocks. Guys are so stupid. Again, it’s a personal principle or whatever you wanna call it. Thou shalt not go after another person’s girl/boy friend. Thou shalt shut up and covet in silence.

As much as I claim to be a hopeless romantic, I don’t think I agree with how this movie ended. Love doesn’t give you the license to totally break all the rules or act irresponsibly. Sure, they tried to ‘soften’ the blow by showing Mitch driving off with another hottie; but to me that makes it even worse. It means the love Mitch said he had for Marie went *poof*, just like that.

Yes, I know you’re saying ‘Dude, it’s just a movie. Chill.’

Bah!