Stupid stupid stupid

Rating: Null/10 (6 October 2011)

I watched this movie trying to distinguish it from a soap opera or romance novel, that it was almost impossible to do. The idea is that a woman (Julian Moore) has sex with a co-worker (Kevin Bacon). Then on their way home after dinner, she tells her loving husband of 25 years (Steve Carrell)—a dinner where he thinks everything went great, by the way—that she screwed her co-worker and she wants a divorce. Let's just review this the guy, after 25 years, still loves his wife, and still takes her out to dinner, along with the fact that he's a loving husband, hard worker and all the trimmingsand she screws around behind his back and SHE wants a divorce. Let's go one more step: the guy is lost after that, he just literally jumps out of the car and is so sick to his stomach, because let's face it, mister perfect man loved his wife and loved his life, and he finds out within seconds that his wife is screwing another man and wants a divorce. Fast forward a bit. Now he's drinking a lot, he's lonely, he has to go out and live in an apartment (of course she gets the house), and all that, and then, after meeting the town hunk (Ryan Gossling), he is mentored into the ways of the world and women. So after some months go by, he finally starts to have sex with other womendid I mention that he never had sex with another woman other than his wife before she kicked him out and he'd had no desire to cheat? And this is the killer—after he has sex with other women, his soon-to-be ex-wife flips out! Did I miss something here? She screwed someone else, she's divorcing him, but she flips out when he seeks out other female companionship. Wait, it gets better! All along, he's still trying to do the right thing. He waters the lawn at his (separated) wife's house, he continues to be a good dad, and he continues, under the influence of his son, to attempt to get his wife back. This is the message I get: a spouse cheats, wants a divorce and then the other spouse—who never did anything wrong—has to do all the work to try to fix things. That doesn't sit right with me. Maybe in some twisted fantasy a woman, or man, wants to think they can cheat, demand a divorce and have their mate pursue them endlessly, but that's not reality...nor does it make for good entertainment.