The truth about Marriage

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2009)

Anyone who has ever been married knows exactly what this couple is going through. Some spouses won't actually vocalize their disagreements in the same way, but they'll feel it. The main characters are faced with a crisis when they realize that their lives haven't turned out the way they had hoped. They got married, had kids, and were forced to make sacrifices. The husband found a job that's unfulfilling. The wife had hopes for something better than suburbia. But, now they are both trapped because of their responsibilities.
SPOILER: The wife hatches a plan that will free her and her family from this trap. But, circumstances make their plans impossible to accomplish and their hope for a better life dissolves. While the husband is willing to deal with the changes, the wife is devastated and takes her own life.
This isn't the only marriage with problems. In fact, in their circle of friends, they stood out as an example of a great marriage. They were supposed to be the best. But the higher you are on the social ladder, the farther you fall.
The real message of the movie is that marriage is a trap. I didn't really understand this until one of the last scenes where we see the interaction between Kathy Bates and her husband. The only point of the scene seems to be that every marriage has problems. Every marriage is miserable. The higher you are and the greater your expectations of married life, the harder you will crash.
I don't agree with this message, but the movie was a good portrait of what every marriage is like. There are other answers to these problems besides moving to Paris.